Celebrities giving back

Jessica Alba just went to Africa to shed light on her campaign to educate all children. When celebrities do human humanitarian work it draws attention to what they are working on and therefore causes viewers and fans to maybe become engaged in helping out for a good cause. I think that this is a really good was for celebrities to use their celebrity status in a positive way. A lot of celebrities including Oprah and Angelina Jolie do humanitarian work for different people around the world. Since they are high profile celebrities the activities they do are generally covered by the media and therefore read and heard about by many people.

plastic surgery

Now days it is almost normal for celebrities to get plastic surgery. One article that I was looking at caught my eye. It was one of Heidi Montag from the hit show The Hills. I'm not sure how true it is that she got all ten of these procedures done, however she definitely got a boob job and a nose job. She was already gorgeous before and I think that getting plastic surgery was unnecessary. I think that celebrities are obsessed with being "perfect". But what is perfect? I feel like some celebrities don't know where to stop and just keep getting more and more surgical procedures done in hope of reaching "perfection."

Oprah- unauthorized biography

Kitty Kelley wrote a biography about Oprah revealing some of Oprah's deepest secrets. In a people article it summarized this "In her latest unauthorized celebrity biography, Kitty Kelley takes on Oprah Winfrey, and aims to shed some light on a woman who is hugely famous and powerful but who Kelley says keeps much of her real self hidden from view." Among other personal issues Kitty talked about Oprah's sexuality and the extent to which she was abused as a child. Oprah then had to address this biography on her show. And deny/ admit a lot of the rumors. This is one thing that is hard about being a celebrity is people can just say whatever they want about you and it is up to the viewers what they do and do not believe. I feel like an unauthorized biography is taking it to another extreme and people should not be able to write a whole book about someone without their permission.

Media culture

An old TV show that used to play on HBO called Wired is being used to study American subculture at many different universities.
Ben Meader at Middleburry college said the following about the show in an article and how it can be used to study our own culture:
"Film and media and television, they have to be regarded as important as literature in how we understand our own culture," says Meader. "I could watch the show on my own and be like, 'Oh, OK, this is an interesting show.' But in order to kind of understand why it was made, when it was made, and how it was made, is something that is really complex and something worth studying."

Film, media and television are very important aspects of our culture. This article was talking about the importance

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Gosselins

In a recent story, it said that Jon Gosselin just filed legal papers asking for primary custody and child support of his eight children. Jon says he will continue to press on with the case unless Kate gives up her "global commitments." He is probably referring to Kate's participation in dancing with the stars. "Jon feels Kate can't have it both ways -- being both a star and an attentive parent." Jon also feels Kate is "addicted to the paparazzi." He says even if Kate is booted from "Dancing with the Stars" on Tuesday, he won't drop his custody case because Kate is "caught up in the glamour of Hollywood" and will take other jobs.

In my opinion both Kate and Jon are too fixated on being celebrities and need to focus more on their children.
I also think that being celebrities is what tore their relationship apart. Everyone relationship has issues but when you have private issues that become public you have millions of people commenting and making the situation worse. I think this is a prime example of the negative effects being a celebrity can have on people.

Scandal helps ratings

Although Tiger Woods has admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and causing a huge scandal he is trying to continue his career in golf. Woods participated in the Master's tournament, which was his first event after 5 months. At first I thought that his scandal would affect his golf career and cause less people to support him. However it did quite the opposite; there were 5 million viewers that tuned in to watch Tiger Woods at the Masters Tournament! According to ESPN Wood's thursday night appearance had double the number of viewers who watched the opening round last year! The article compared this to a car crash and how people pull over to look at the car crash. "People want to see how he holds up, they want to see the reaction to him and if he can still play golf."

I feel like this is just one example of a situation that happens to a lot of celebrities. When a celebrity does something bad, everyone (the public) wants to hear about it, so their media coverage increases. Therefore instead of being punished the celebrities are almost rewarded for it their bad behavior.

Rehab for celebrities?

After writing my last blog I was interested in the whole celebrities going to rehab topic so I was looking articles up and I am amazed by how prevalent rehab is. I found this site that has a summary of some of the celebrities that have been to rehab. It's crazy how many celebrities have gone to rehab! Recently there is Jesse James, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Robert Downey Jr. just to name a few. The reasons listed vary from alcoholism, cocaine and heroine usage, prescription drug addiction, eating disorders, and sex.

I wonder how much rehab actually helps. There were many who went back to rehab multiple times and some who have had success with it the first time. I guess it just depends on the person. Do celebrities end up in rehab more often than regular people? Or is it just that because they are celebrities we hear about it more?

Jesse James is going to rehab

The latest news says that Jesse James, Sandra Bullock's cheating husband, is now going to sex rehab. This article says that Jesse James hopes that by going to sex rehab it will prevent Sandra Bullock from divorcing him. There were rumors that Jesse confessed to sleeping with 7 other women! He even got one of them pregnant, though she did not keep the baby. Before going to rehab the article said that Jesse was cited for attacking a paparazzo's car and claiming that the photographer was stalking him. I guess these are just some of the things you have to deal with being a celebrity and doing something scandalous.

I think that anytime a celebrity makes a big mistake like with alcohol, drug use, or sex they almost use rehab as a get out of jail free card. I feel like you read these articles about how these celebrities did drugs or something bad; and then at the end they are like oh but they are going to rehab for it. Almost as if it is making what they did okay. I think that celebrities going to rehab is almost like a new fashion.

Is celebrity gossip the cause of stress?

I was reading a random article about stress and the 10 secret stressors and shockingly one of them was celebrity gossip! I thought this was really funny/interesting since all of our blogs are on celebrities. This is what the article had to say about it:

10. Celebrity gossip

"Sure, it can be fun to stay up to date on Brad and Angelina—and did you seeJennifer Aniston’s new house?! But experts have always warned that celebrityogling may come at a cost to your happiness and stress levels. “Comparing yourself to celebrities and movie stars is difficult at best,” says Dr. Durré. “They have personal trainers, beauticians, housekeepers, maids, butlers, gardeners, chauffeurs, nannies and cooks.” Instead of fixating on such lifestyles, “accept yourself for who and what you are,” she adds. Try this: Only allow yourself to sink into celebrity gossip, whether it’s in print, on TV or on the Web, when you’re doing something to better your own health and happiness, like running on a treadmill or cooking a healthy meal."

The whole article can be found here. This is exactly why I think that comparing yourself to celebrities is bad. It's fine if you just read about celebrities. However, when you start to compare yourself to them, in most cases it only leaves you not feeling as good about yourself. Most celebrities have lots of money and can afford nice things, personal trainers and even chefs. It is unfair to yourself to expect to be exactly like a celebrity. However I think that celebrity gossip could also have positive influences on your life. For example after reading about Tiger Woods you could how bad it is and the consequences of being unfaithful and decide that is not what you what to do. Or you could read about how Oprah gives money to certain charities and decide to do the same. I think that celebrity gossip can make either a positive or a negative impact on your life and it is up to the reader to decide how to use this information.

irony

I just came across an article about how at the People's Choice Awards when Sandra Bullock was asked by Insider about the Tiger Woods scandal she said "If I were Elin... man, I would have hit a lot more than she did... I would have kept hitting!" I found an audio clip of her saying this too. Poor Sandra Bullock obviously had no idea about her own husband's affairs at the time. It is ironic that shortly after making this remark Sandra Bullock is dealing with her own husband's cheating scandal. To read more go here.

Being a celebrity has its ups and its downs. I'm sure when it comes to issues like this big celebrities like Tiger Woods and Sandra Bullock would like to deal with it privately. However this is the kind of scandals and gossip that we as fans and media consumers like to hear. The fans are always more interested in the private lives and scandals of celebrities rather than their careers.

Kate Gosselin

Almost everyone has heard of Kate Gosselin after the reality TV show on TLC "Jon and Kate plus 8." However for those of you who haven't the show started about 5 years ago and focus' on their eight kids. They have 2 twins Cara and Mady who were older, I think 5 or 6 when the show started and 6 1 year olds! The show was a success and had 4 million viewers at its peak. The family soon became celebrities and were followed by the paparazzi. Many viewers questioned whether this lifestyle was healthy for the children. It didn't take Kate long to take her "15 minutes of fame" and prolong it. She did this by giving speaking engagements, interviews and even writing two books.

Now Kate has undergone a complete makeover and is participating in the reality show "Dancing with the Stars." Rumors are going around that people on the set did not like her and that she should be taking care of her kids instead of flying off to LA. When she was being interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel she said that she wanted a certain partner but was told that he was too quiet for her and was matched with Tony Dovolani; who they hope "will crack the whip and not let Kate call the shots." Many are anticipating the start of this show and cannot wait to see how Kate does and how she interacts with everyone. For more information you can click here.

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