Kathleen Sweeney, pop culture pundit, author of the fantastic MAIDEN USA, multi-media artist and New School professor took the time to sit down with me and get our celebrity chit-chat on.
Alex Catarinella: How has a celebrity gossip blog such as Perez influenced how we see the female celebrity? Do we and why do we praise the "good" celebrities like Angelina who seem to have the perfect life and put down those with issues like Amy Winehouse?
Kathleen Sweeney: What’s clear is there’s a pantheon of icons out there to choose from. And with blogging and Internet viral transmissions of news, that pantheon has expanded to include true heroines who use their status to promote causes for the greater good (like Angelina Jolie, Susan Sarandon, etc) and those whose claim to fame originates with bad girl behaviors like Amy Winehouse. The blogosphere has given rise to a host of citizen critics (caricatured by the SNL clip you posted on your blog), who often use avatars to diss the creative performances and daily actions of others. Perez has created his own fame base through sniping, which has been the purview of critics for eons. What intrigues me far more than this activity is those who have harnessed the Internet for social change. It is up to us as individuals to determine how we want to spend our Web time.
AC: Have SNSs and celebrity gossip blogs introduced a new type of celeb?--one that is famous for their missteps and scandal rather than talent. And with SNSs, everyone can be a celeb. What does this say about American culture?
KS: Social Networking site design relies on a template that is similar to 90s-style fan pages. In the Facebook era, every has the potential to be a celebrity on their own terms, with their own helicopter shot…while celebrities of the celluloid era, 60s, 70s, even 80s had their share of tabloid dramas, the pedestal on which they were placed was fairly secure until violated with scandal. Nowadays, the level of tabloid scrutiny has increased as well as people’s own sense of themselves as potentially comparatively more important. Celebrity royalty has been taken down a few notches, and emphasis on mistakes and missteps may well be part of this.
AC: What's your perspective on young and troubled starlets like Lindsay, Britney, etc. Why the fascination with them?
KS: Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, despite vast differences in their core talent base, were both packaged by the Disney machine. They began as girl-stars within the franchise (Lindsay as the star of movies like The Parent Trap, where she successfully played two distinct characters at the age of 11, and Britney, as a featured singer/dancer on the Mickey Mouse Club). Using very sophisticated marketing techniques, Disney corporation orchestrated a sexually titillating “coming of age” ritual for both of these stars, with key covers at the age of 18 on predominately guy magazines like Rolling Stone, and high pop mags like Vanity Fair (we saw the same strategy with Miley Cyrus this year…). As each of these starlets approached 18, you couldn’t get away from tabloid and mainstream magazine coverage of their arrival on the adult scene. It’s as if they lost their virginity to the collective gaze of millions. Thus the fascination that follows into the tabloid press. They gave up an intimate personal rite of passage and agreed to make it public. That both young women grew up as working actresses from an early age meant they likely knew no other world, no other way. That their families and parents gave the okay to this entrée into starlet society remains questionable, as they all cashed in on a huge sacrifice made by both young celebrities: to grow up under a huge spotlight, rather than in the privacy of their own girlish daydreams. Since one of their biggest rewards financially was “selling off” their “virginity,” in the circus of pop culture, and they weren’t able to “grow up” on their own terms. The result appears to be a perpetual adolescence in drugs, acting out, and self-destruction. (See the chapter “Lipstick Lolitas” in my book Maiden USA…)
AC: Do you think that the obsession with being "famous" is celeb gossip blogs and reality TV's fault? Do they celebrate individuals who will do anything to be famous-- for not wearing underwear, for getting drunk, etc. What are the implications of this desire for fame that doesn't involve talent or hard work?
KS: We live in a Cinderella culture where the mythology of Hollywood from its earliest days spun the “a star is born” storyline. This belief, that anyone with the right combination of talent and luck can become a celebrity has been multiplied through reality TV and Internet self-stardom venues. That some will tell-all, undress, make provocative statements to gain an audience comes as no surprise when the stardom dream still holds so much power for a large sector of the population. Doesn’t it remind you of high school? It’s reflection of a certain sector of youth culture that doesn’t grow up, let go of the vapid star dream and to become engineers of renewable energy technologies, stellar teachers, or social change activists. Sending those seed ideas and other forms of innovation into the stratosphere/blogosphere has only begun to be tapped as an evolutionary possibility.
AC: How has SNSs like Facebook, Twitter or Youtube created instant celebs and what's your perspective on these sites? Do you think in the future individuals can have long lasting fame from being a reality TV star or for a Youtube sensation?
KS: The Internet fame dream has proven most effective for musicians, more than actors. Some truly talents songwriters have gained traction through iPod play and YouTube videos who would have otherwise never made it to the promotion team at a label. Examples include Kate Nash, Lily Allen, and recently Neko Case. As for actors, legitimacy still comes from the stage, TV series, and film. So far, Reality TV provides a proverbial 15 minutes at most.15 minutes at most.
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