Celebrity pickings
June 8th 2010 05:47
VYOOS EDITORIAL
As the dust was settling recently on Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and the revelation that she had been caught in a tabloid sting offering to sell access to her former husband, Prince Andrew, for 500,000 pounds, she knew she had to do something.
Essentially, she had two choices.
The first was to get into a huddle with her coterie and map out a damage control plan. The usual celebrity thing: remorse, sob story, hint of depression. A friend in need is a plus. Grains of truth here and there are helpful. Real tears are a bonus if you're good enough to squeeze them out on cue.
The plan is to let people see you are human. If you get some actual sympathy, that's nice, but the real purpose of the plan is to complicate the picture with a colourful panorama of personal tribulations upon which people can focus, in the same way they enjoy focusing on train wrecks.
And so you deflect attention, with some small embarrassments, from the big embarrassment.
Fergie will have amongst her group of hangers-on some who are expert in the strategy of confession. Done well enough, they will know, it can generate significant media interest of its own, and where there's media interest, there is income generation potential.
Delighted to offer 24-hour photographic exclusivity. For a consideration.
This is the choice, as we all know, that Fergie made. No surprise there. And the cornerstone of the plan was an appearance on Oprah Winfrey's couch. Lights, camera, tears. Thanks
Fergie, have to run now and check the ratings figures.
Of course, there are drawbacks with this damage control strategy. A big one is that Joe and Josephine Public have an annoying habit of, at times, not buying the story. A second is that the media is absolutely, consummately, unabashedly two-faced. You can bask one day, and boil the next.
The Duchess, it seems, struck out this time on both counts. It has been reported that pretty much every media organisation with an internet presence and a public comments facility has been inundated with fuming Joes and Josephines who were very unimpressed with the Oprah performance.
"I found it painful to watch," wrote one.
"I did not feel that she was sincere and I felt that she was on a mission to save her public identity and the proceeds that come from such," wrote another.
"Everyone is talking about poor Sarah and her scandal," said a third. "Talk is money.
She was in NYC last week at the Book Expo promoting her children's book. Hmm, will sales go up or down?''
Ouch.
Perhaps the hardest hits were those who accused Sarah of copying Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, who had her own confessional on British TV's Panorama show at the height of her marriage woes.
And Fergie found no mercy from the world's media either. Take that uppity New York Times television reviewer Alessandra Stanley, who described Fergie's Oprah appearance as the "ritual of repentance and renewal that these celebrity makeovers require''.
Stanley added, "She is gaming the system, and Oprah is the first and obligatory step in reputation repair."
We mentioned earlier that Fergie had a second option. That option was to say, "Look, I'm sorry. I have behaved like an idiot, and I need to take a long hard look at myself."
Nah. No profit in that.
dailymail.co.uk, news.com.au
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Comment by Journeywoman
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I Dream of Hollywood
Fashion Peach
Personally I don't see anything wrong with using the media as a business (hell, my own blogs are written for profit, and I make no apologies for that) but you have to be upfront about it. Tugging on people's heartstrings and professing sincerity while eyeing off the $$$ as Fergie has done is just low.... and it's brilliant that audiences are finally seeing such orchestrated drama for what it is.
I'd be interested to know how much money Fergie made out of this whole debacle, including increases in sales on her book.... it could well be in excess of 500,000 pounds! Not really ironic, just a sign of the times.
Comment by Chris Champion
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Money Whither
Great comment.
I agree that using the media as a business is as acceptable as it is prevalent. Sarah Ferguson, Lady Gaga ... and Sarah Palin and every other politician on the face of the planet can confirm it.
Ultimately, however, market forces and consumer reaction will determine the bottom line of individual celebrity businesses.
In other words, it does take some talent to fool everyone all of the time.
CC
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Some people just think they are invulnerable I think....that can be the only answer. I do however think it is good that the "Joes and Josephines" as you call them are seeing the light.
Comment by Chris Champion
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Money Whither
Interesting point about assumption of invulnerability. Makes you wonder just how removed from the reality the rest of us live in some of these people are.