Celebrity Squares.
 

At school in the late seventies, I discovered Paris Match in the school library.

A magazine full of photographs of the Grimaldis, Johnny Halliday, and Catherine Deneuve, and very little text. Fascinating.

We certainly didn't have a British equivalent at that time.

We knew that Kevin Keegan had a bad perm and was married, that Prince Charles played polo, and that Brucie and Tarbie played golf.

Besides, we as a country had no interest in what famous people did, or didn't do.

Pat Phoenix may have been stuffing fivers down the g-strings of any number of nubile strippers, but we didn't know, and frankly didn't care.

The word paparazzi was a name only bandied about by a few Fellini film buffs. No one knew who they were, and we certainly didn't have them in Britain at that time.

To me the rot seemed to start in early 1981, when the media started to become obsessed with the young Lady Diana Spencer. A photograph of a decidedly full bossom in a off the shoulder black dress, followed by a pair of shapely pins, seen in shilhouette under a Laura Ashley skirt. As a nation we were hooked.

The seeds were sown, and the great British public watered those seeds, by buying the newspapers, and the magazines devoted to celebrity that followed.

Now we have a multi-million pound industry based around the cult of celebrity. People are famous for being famous, and not for what they do.

I wish we, as a nation, could turn our collective clock back.

Sienna Miller has cellulite.

Duncan from Blue has a lovely home.

Kate Middleton shops at Topshop.

I DON'T DAMN WELL CARE!

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

would agree,a lot of famous people these days are complete *******, who have done sod all to justify their status,just put there to sell papers/magazines. many of the crew in BB justify that statement.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

Of course I'll have to hold my hands up to watching Celebrity Big Brother, but I see it more as a social experiment.

I'd also happily watch a group of rats in a cage, if they were celebrated or not, and watch as they tried to survive, and cope with adversity.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

yep , but without the paparazzi how would all the dressmakers get their tat into the pages of Hello :confused: :confused:

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

Darling Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell managed for decades, without any help from the paps.;)

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

true , but the slappers in Burnley and Blackburn don't read the Tatler and Country Life

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

They just read Harpers & Queen?

The silly gels.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

nah , they think Harpers is a disease , and the Queens is a Pub

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

they are aren,t they?:D

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

Over half a million Heat magazines are sold in the UK every week, and that's just one of many titles.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_%28magazine%29

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

this is the stuff you read while standing/waiting in the supermarket checkout line, then stuff it back into the rack , never actually seen anyone buy a copy , God forbid a neighbour sees you buying garbage like this

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

Well besides the countless people who stuff it back on the rack, in the UK over half a million people must also leave it to be scanned next to their beans.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

Slightly off topic.

Maybe not the same magazines but those daft ones that come out every week. Pick Me Up and Take a Break, that sort of thing. I quite enjoy reading them. 'She stole my husband, I'll break her neck' and 'He's been married six times and I didn't know'.

Then you get the tips......... no, I won't go there!

I don't buy them but they seem to do the rounds within the English community here. Not much in the way of fashion though, Rindy.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

you mean ....how do I know if my toys are dishwasher safe :D :D

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

on reflection and thinking about the original theme of the thread I think the first time the paparazzi had any influence in the British press, broadsheet as well as tabloid was when Jean Shrimpton appeared in a 'mini' at the Melbourne Cup in 65 and the British press went ape . The 'event' happened in Australia at a race meet which only Australians have any interest in but the pictures made world headlines at the time especially in the UK
see attached link ,,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Shrimpton
She was what can be described as the first 'supermodel' but the word hadn't been invented then , a real crackerjack

:cool: :cool: :cool:

on checking the wikipedia entry I notice she will be 65 this year , where have years gone:( :( :(

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

i think the paparazzi do a thankless job and provide a vital and sometimes much needed service

its just a pitty every red carpet event dosnt provide a tunnel on route for them to chase people into :)

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

I think hair dressers and nail salons must buy all the copies of 'Hello' etc. They have to be the most boring magazines in existence. Something to read while you wait? There's nothing in there to read!

Fans always seem to have had a curiosity about the oddest of things in their idol's private life though. When I ran a fan club umpty million years ago they used to ask me the sort of personal questions about Roddy that you wouldn't dream of asking most people about themselves. Why do they need to know these things? Imagine this in real life:

Mr A: May I introduce you to a colleage of mine, Mr. B?
Miss C: Oh nice to meet you Mr. B. Do you eat breakfast?
Mr. B: I prefer a glass of fruitjuice, do you wear pyjamas?
Miss C: Nah I prefer me wincy yette nightie. :D

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

We’ve had out differences of opinion in the past garinda but on this occasion I have to agree with you totally.

In fact I was so taken up with your comments I reached for the Karma button only to be informed “You must spread some Karma around before giving it to garinda again.”

Drat! Drat! And double drat!

I will try to remember to reach for it again later.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

See.

Me, the voice of reason.:)

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

I do occasionally read about celebs-Guilty!
But i dont spend a fortune just to find out what toothpaste Peter Andre uses-whereas i have friends who spend over a fiver a week on OK!,Now,etc and then moan about the fact they hardly have any money to spend on taking their children out/baby clothes/weekly shop etc.
The celeb world is soo over-rated but i am interested to a certain extent...i think its a case of dissapearing into a dream world for a few minutes because sometimes i would rather be reading about what Jordan is up to with Peter and the kids rather than worrying about how on earth Jack wedged that cheese sandwich into the DVD player,and how im going to get it out without it falling apart in the process.
But i also read chick lit to gain the same effect-so i am excused :)

Maybe you could compile a magazine at the end of each week about what you have been up to Garinda so i dont keep these mag producers in business? :p

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

I think perhaps you are right, it is an escape.

In the depression of the thirties, people were fascinated about the lives of the Hollywood stars, who helped them to forget about their day to day lives. People live Hedda Hopper, and Louella Parsons fed the American public tasty clues about the things the actors were really up to, and not the carefully airbrushed image the studio system tried to present of them.

Re: Celebrity Squares.
 

I used to buy Now magazine, not entirely for the celebs but also fashion/make up, I haven't bought it in ages but all those magazines use the same photo's, the stories are often repeated, then the same picture will be printed again a few months later with a different story attached. I dont like the fact that air brushing photo's gives unobtainable goals to younger people. I agree with Miss Kitty however that it is escapism, though I would like the obsession with celebraty to be over.