Sorry If I'm digging up old news but "Celebrity" status just pisses me off

rotill

I was just checking out one my old favourite blog sites that I haven't been to in a while because it became shyte and came accross something on Katy French and one of the comments just pissed me off for some reason. Some guy complained about the attention she was getting after someone commented that they cried when they heard about her death and was called below human nearly when the author of the blog said he couldn't "imagine the level of darkness you exist in." to the guy. Then another guy pipes in and asks what the complainer would be saying if she had died in a climbing accident. This guy even used the sentence "it betrays an ambivalence and an anger than is not worth understanding." which I think is just a load of boolocks. This series of four comments somehow hit a nerve with me and before I knew it I had written this

"She did not die in a climbing accident she died from taking drugs (I know it's they're not fully sure yet). She does not deserve the praise she has gotten. She was simply good looking that's all. Definitely not a role model for Irish girls. It's a very bad indication of the quality of Ireland and especially Ireland's media that she has been put up on such a high pedastle. People deserve to be honoured for what they actually did when they die. They should not be built up to something they are not. Who would have called her a role model for young Irish girls before she died. I'd say she might have herself but only if it got her name in the paper. Did the two young guys in waterford get any praise in the papers or did they get 11 pages devoted to them in any paper. I suppose people will say "What did they do to deserve it?" or who knew them. Why is that important? Why does she deserve 11 pages? What has she done? Would anyone know her only for the fact that she looked good on camera? The responses I have seen before have been along the lines of "But she has done all that work for charity!". Did she then tell the papers all about this work she was doing for charity. All models and famous people do work for charities because their PR people tell them to because it makes them look good. Sorry I'll change what I said above. She was a media whore first and then a good looking girl. That's it. I suppose you could call her a drug adict as well or am I not allowed say that because she is dead? This was the opinion I had of the girl before she died. Why should I change it because she is dead? To compare it to someone else who is actually famous but not having a good time in the media today, what would people say if Britney Spears died today from the same kind of incident? Would everyone say how great she was and all nice things about her? Would she deserve them? Would a crazy "trailer-trash" pop-star deserve praise just because she is dead? I don't think so. Do you?"

I know this is very old news but I am getting sick of the way celebrities and "famous" people are looked at these days. What have they done that they deserve to be seen as better than you or me. I know the young girl died and all that but I just can't see where all the fuss came from. People younger than her die every day in much more tragic surcumstances! Do they get 11 pages written about them in their local paper by Jimbo Kelly bacuase he knew her and thought she was great. No.
I know people talk about the great things people have done when they died but I think it is an insult to them that the things they have done be exagerated or given greater significance than they deserve. When my Grandfather died I was told a story by a man he was in the army with. He told me that my grandfather had been told by his superior to discipline a soldier who had not really done anything wrong and was only being disciplined because the superior officer and the soldier didn't get on and he wanted make his life hell. My grandfather refused to do this and as a result was detained in the brig himself for the weekend as punishment. He knew this would happen to him but he did it anyway. I thought this to be a very noble thing to do. The man told me this wasn't the end of the story. He went on to tell me that my grandmother who was then only my grandfather girlfriend was to travel over from Ireland to England that weekend to see my Grandfather. As a result of not punishing this man my Grandfather knew he would not get to see my Grandmother who he had not seen for months. The old man expressed how important and rare visits for my Grandmother were to my Grandfather at the time as they were not rich. My Grandfather never told me this story but my Grandmother confirmed this story for me when I asked. She also said she wasn't to happy about it at the time.
I was amazed at this and thought it a great sacrifice my Grandfather made to stand up for what he believed in. Was this story ever told in the media? Was he ever called a role model for this or did he ever tell his Grandchildren this story to show his grandkids what a great man he was. No. I know it may seem ironic for me to tell this story after what I have said and I may be ruining my point by telling it. What I have been trying to say over the course of this "essay" (Thanks for reading if you have gotten this far) is that celebrities are not more important than you or me. They should not get the coverage they recieve unless it is the celebrity section (and TV3 news should not it put a models death as their main story) and that I think it was a sad indication of our country today that this young girl's (she may have been the most wonderful girl ever for all I know) life and death was given so much attention simply because her picture was used for advertising purposes.
I'd like to hear what people think about this. Am I alone in thinking this or what?

Ger the man

I completley agree

Beano

I have to disagree on one point. She wasnt that good looking.

rotill

That's good. Thought I was the only one. Doubt many people have actually read it since it's so long. Sorry bout that couldn't stop typing.

togster

i completely disagree with you op. Good thread though just lacks a certain somethin somethin

rotill

What; you think that celebrities are more important than us? Or just that yer one deserved all the attention she got?

golly-pop

Completely agree with you Rotill. Cant understand the warped fascination with hyped up attention seekers. Its driven by market forces to sell magazines and merchandise. Real stars arent part of the circus, their sucess comes from their achievements and their talent, not from the amount of tabloid coverage they whip up. Strange you never see Bono or Bruce Springsteen or Schumacher or any of the hundreds of great Sports or Music stars draped across the covers of the tabloids, - only wasters like Hilton and Spears and the Big Brother Brigade. Oh and Jordan. Actually I dont feel too strongly about Katy French getting coverage cos I think it was more the shock reaction that someone who seemed so wholesome and so involved in charity stuff turned out to have such a darker side.

rotill

Seems they still don't seem to know the cause of death yet. Police think that the amount of Cocaine wasn't enough to kill her and that they have to carry out further tests to see if another drug which was in her system caused it. Didn't expect it to take this long. The coverage doesn't seem to be as big now for it and seems like everyone has forgotten about it. Where are all the headlines and news stories about it?

lizann

There is alot of young people all over Ireland dying each year from drug deaths or other causes and they get no coverage.

I don't understand why she was a celebrity anyway?

I laughed when i saw an article stating she was "Our Princess Diana"

WannaST

It was an opportunity for the Irish tabloids to print something scandulous about someone who WASN'T involved in politics. You can see them all chewing on their pencils, watching all the fuss in London, SOHO, etc, celebs falling arse over face, thongs & boobs being flashed left right and centre, doing the dirt... each one of these Irish journo/hacks/papa-rats wishing that something like that would happen here in good ol Eire...

As sad as it was (loss of any young life is) it was HUGE for these people, it didn't mean inches of column ink, it meant feet, even metres! It was someone that most of the country knew (she featured on Podge&Rodge shortly after her public break-up), unfortunately only a few people in Waterford cared to read about the young fella's that died there. In fact people were more interested in the bad cocaine than the young lads, which is even sadder again...

And the suckers that we are, we bought the papers two and three at a time. Job done.:o

Beerlao

i can't be bothered reading that but i agree with the heading. seriously you've written a dissertation there