The Fit from MySpace – MySpace The Fit with Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton is now in jail, it has been reported. Phew! Perhaps we might now hope for a amount of time of calm and silence around that young woman. Might the enforced incarceration even instruct her a heap of humility and a more caring, and responsible attitude?

All the fuss around her has got me marveling whether this generation is any more celebrity crazy now than we were in our youth? My conclusion is that I don’t think we were any less of being celebrity worshippers, but something has changed dramatically for the duration of that time to affect the cult of celebrity, as illustrated by this little tale.

She was dressed in a habit, the only thing visible being her face, the sign of having taken vows to serve God totally as a nun. At that time, 45 years ago, nuns were unduly cloistered and had to behave in the most genteel way in public. I was a boarder at the convent school where we were looked after by nuns for the duration of the school term. But this peculiar lady stood out for me because she was the initial nun I ever saw dancing energetically and unashamedly to Elvis Presley songs. Elvis unknowingly reached all over the world, to little Jamaica and to a nun in our convent, who disseminate her infectious love of Elvis to a heap of of her charges. They purchased his records, talked with regards to him non-stop, swooned when they saw his picture, and screamed when they heard him sing. There was not one thing like it. Elvis was the extreme end of celebrity worship for us, but we thought there was not one thing better than Gina Lollobrigida, Brigette Bardot, Cary Grant, Clarke Gable, and the only Black star at the time, the cool and handsome Sidney Poitier. Not to mention singers and bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Ben E King.

We were hungry for news of our stars, always going to their latest films and keeping up with the gossip principally through magazines and newspapers. However, it was more difficult to buy our favourite singer’s records because we weren’t as affluent as today’s youngsters so a portable radio was a will have to for each young fan. We would interchange valuable scraps of gossip which had been passed down through galore mouths, altering each time, ever so more or less in the telling. By the time it had made the full rounds, each bit of gossip had been elaborated out of all proportion. But hero-worship was outstanding and something that each cool kid did, exceptionally as it was done from afar. We could never get near our heroes, so they always remained mysteriously unattainable and even more likeable because of that distance. We weren’t mesmerized in pulling them down from their pedestal, but with keeping them there as much as we could. Of course, there was no chance of ever meeting our celebrities in person, unless they did a tour.

Carefully controlled lives

The agencies and studios controlled the lives of their stars with an iron hand. Nothing got out with regards to them which was not approved and you heard only the positive bits. Stars remained publicly shiny all around their careers and when they fell from grace, they fell with a bang to become has beens. You never heard of any individual being an alcoholic, no matter how boozy they were, or going to anything called rehab. Everything was held under wraps to preserve the halo effect around them. For example, only years later were we conscious that Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey were having an affair (he was married). So all those films they did together with such a noteworthy on-screen alchemy were not being faked. Again, it was revealed only 12 years ago that Rock Hudson was gay. That outstanding hunk all women applied to swoon over, sentiment jealous of each woman he kissed on screen, preferent men. That bit of news would have killed his career dead if it had got out in the 50s and 60s.

And that’s the greatest alter for today’s hero-worshippers: access to the celebrities. It seems that celebrity followers are no more intense than we were in our time. The only divergence is that we did not have the access to the stars that they now have and so everything was more isolated and controlled. Today’s celebrities are available at the touch of a blog, on TV, on radio, on line, on MySpace, even in person. Thanks to the development of awful technology, celebrity looking at has evolved on a tremendous profitable scale which keeps them incessantly in the public eye, closely ad nauseam, and intrude into their lives in unacceptable ways. The never ending stream of gossip, photographs, videos and salacious news has scaled down the currency of the celebrity to an all time low so that humans are now widely known and esteemed just for appearing on TV…Not for any outstanding film, song or good works, but merely for being famous for that primary 10 minutes.

The Fit From Myspace Myspace The Fit With Paris Hilton Photo

The Fit From Myspace Myspace The Fit With Paris Hilton Picture

The Fit From Myspace Myspace The Fit With Paris Hilton Image

The Fit From Myspace Myspace The Fit With Paris Hilton Photo