Stars? Yeah Right...Think Again

by Jenny Ahn

Where do Hollywood’s biggest stars come from? Why do we consider them to be the top of the many actors and actresses that show up in movies every month? Is their success and popularity the public’s doing, or does it stem from somewhere else, somewhere like Hollywood itself? I‘d say the latter is as probable as the former.

Let us take Julia Roberts for example. Certainly not the most beautiful of all of Hollywood’s actresses, what makes Julia Roberts so special in the minds of Americans? Is it her humongous mouth, her toothy grin, or those “Pretty Woman” legs of hers, which by the way were not her own in the movie? No. It is a certain image that Hollywood and its circle of cooperating tabloids and media giants are creating to have people believe that she is this wonderful individual, one worthy of paying our eight dollars to see in a movie. Why do we associate Julia Roberts with the phrase “America’s Sweetheart”? Because this is a heading that appears above her photograph on countless magazine covers, fooling each and every one of us into thinking that the rest of America adores her, thus we have little reason to feel otherwise. At least it makes us unconsciously associate Roberts with the phrase “America’s Sweetheart” every time we stand in line to buy groceries, until it becomes ingrained in our minds. Her widespread acceptance has reached a point where even her worst performances, as in Erin Brockovich, are hailed as great achievements.

And why do you suppose there seems to be a single actress or actor each month who appears on nearly every magazine, tabloid, and newspaper? Is it because the entire country is wanting to read about this particular “star”? Probably not. By pasting the same person’s face in the public line of vision, the film industry forces people to ask, “Who is this guy, attractive or terribly strange-looking, and what could be the reason for the sudden attention that the media is giving him?”. This is exactly what Hollywood wants people to do. By creating a semblance of great gossip and hype about an actor, and exploiting the curious nature of humans, the film industry jump-starts a real social craze and a heightened regard for one of its money-producing minions who could very well have been just another face in the crowd the previous month. It is not the public that “discovers” great performers, but rather the industry that packages its plain gray stones into shimmering nuggets of “gold”.

In other words, those who fall under Hollywood’s advertisement spell are analogous to the emperor who fell prey to the trick played on him by the fake, thieving tailors: “A beautiful and majestic set of robes we are weaving and creating for you, your majesty. Only a fool would not be able to see the breathtaking colors of the special fabric we are producing on this loom for your brilliant costume! By the way, please bring us more gold and silver so that we may purchase additional dyes and threads to continue making the cloth.” Like the emperor, we supply the funds for making bigger “stars”, and when a new star is introduced, not enough people want to go against the seemingly popular opinion to overturn the pre-created Hollywood façade. Eventually, as time wears on, and as more and more people buy into the image that has been created for the new face in question, even the former skeptics convince themselves that the majority’s belief is somehow correct, and that they must have been mistaken about the lack of anything special in the newcomer. They tell themselves that there must have been some unique aspect of the new star that was initially overlooked. The “beautiful clothes” being made can thus be seen as analogous to the famous actors/actresses that Hollywood produces. At first, they are invisible to the unpolluted eye, but their images are fueled and kindled until they burn brightly in the audiences’ hearts and esteems, and become insmotherable by even the loudest and, I’d say, quite justified cry for a reality check.

An example of someone who seemingly came from nowhere and is now among the most widely known actresses is Kate Hudson, previously known as just Goldie Hawn’s daughter. I remember seeing a tiny photograph of her and Goldie in a magazine article that was focused on Goldie Hawn, and thinking, “Goldie Hawn may be older, and probably had a face-lift and some plastic surgery done, but she actually looks prettier than her daughter. Hmm, it must have been her husband that ruined the gene pool. Oh well. It’s not uncommon for the children of big stars not to live up to their parents’ beauty“. Take Jamie Lee Curtis, for instance. Her parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, are by far better looking than their daughter is. In just the last two years, however, Hawn’s once unknown daughter has been deemed (we’ll never know for sure if she is or isn’t any of these things for most of what we know about her has been filtered through others before getting to us) gorgeous, funny, down to earth, and even talented. Last year, she was even nominated for an Oscar! Is the screenwriter’s guild also in on this ploy of making a nobody a somebody overnight? Were their involvement denied, I wouldn’t believe it. But why this sudden explosion of praise and attention? Most probably, Hollywood was looking for a new generation of stars and stumbled across Kate Hudson. With a bit of make-up, or a lot, a new wardrobe, manicures, facials, and weekly hair appointments, even the most normal-looking person can be transformed into an icon. This is what Hollywood does when its actor/actress batch is not as fresh as it used to be, and public interest is falling low, and quite understandably so, because without the continual flow of money from the public to the film industry, Hollywood would just be another ghost town of the wild west.

How does Hollywood choose who is going to be their next fund raiser? That I do not know, but one name comes to mind, a name and face that has brought Hollywood lots of fame and fortune, Gwyneth Paltrow. The only reason I mention this actress, the only reason I even know her name, is that entertainment shows, magazines, and newspapers have been reporting on her life, her movies, and her choice of clothing for at least the past five years. Talented, beautiful, and young, tabloids rave over and over again, and my very first encounter with this Gwyneth Paltrow was when her romantic relationship with already popular Brad Pitt was publicized. “Star-crossed lovers” was a common caption under their photos in magazines such as People, and numerous TV talk shows such as Oprah invited Gwyneth and her beau for interviews. Their relationship was then even further publicized when at the Golden Globes, Pitt dedicated his win to his “love of my life, Gwyneth Paltrow” and the camera panned to her glowing, smiling face. But after a while, the crowds began to scatter and interest in Hollywood‘s “fairy-tale“ relationship was waning. However, just as interest began to dissipate, Gwyneth and Brad delivered Hollywood with a miracle and announced, or rather, Hollywood announced their “heart-wrenching” break-up. For months, magazines like Redbook and again, People had Paltrow and Pitt’s photographs blown-up to humongous sizes, to ensure that the masses could all see, with jagged lines in between their two faces with the words, “Shocking Split”, “What Happened?“, and “It’s the Pitts for Gwyneth” printed in bold letters below. Oprah had Gwyneth on her show again, and the two discussed how Paltrow felt, what sorts of “emotions she was going through”, and how, despite the separation, Paltrow and Pitt still had “warm feelings for each other, that it was a mutual agreement, that they just needed some time away from each other, and that they would remain friends”. Right. What just about every celebrity says after a high-profile break-up. Shortly after the split, to ensure that Gwyneth never left our minds, tabloids such as the National Enquirer began to capitalize on Gwyneth’s co-starring with Ben Affleck in the movie ‘Bounce‘, which had originally been written for Paltrow and Pitt. Reports about Paltrow’s budding romance with actor Affleck swarmed the newsstands, but the affection turned out to be short-lived. Following this story, it was Gwyneth on her own, happily on her way to winning an academy award for ‘Shakespeare in Love‘. In the pre-Oscars news coverage, Paltrow’s old relationships were dug up again and re-fed to the public, and while Paltrow was on the podium, receiving her award, another story was born. Apparently, Gwyneth had had a difficult year, her grandfather having passed away, in addition to her daddy having had “a hard year”, so the newspapers and talk shows again felt the need to sell, this time, Paltrow’s emotional win. When at last we thought the stories about Gwyneth were over, the media caught wind that Brad Pitt’s new love was the beloved ’Friends’ star Jennifer Aniston, and of course felt that the public needed to hear Paltrow’s opinion of the matter. Finally, now, after a near decade, now that Pitt has married Aniston, and is therefore out of the picture, now that Affleck is planning to marry Jennifer Lopez, and now that Paltrow has found herself engaged to Britain’s rocker Chris Martin, things have quieted down a little since there is not much more left to gossip about, save Gwyneth’s wedding when it comes. Thus, as is apparent with Gwyneth Paltrow, once the media has caught our attention and has us interested in a star, they then start to serve us increasingly trivial news about our favorite actors and actresses, trying and oftentimes succeeding in getting us to purchase magazines and biographies, “the real story”, and “what you never knew about so and so”. This marketing goes on for years upon years, until they have sucked the life out of our wallets, and until the star‘s image, not to mention the quality of an actor’s production, is as dried up as a slab of stale beef jerky. Hollywood will sell an actor’s image until even it has to acknowledge that there is nothing left to sell, but by that time it probably already has tens of people waiting in line to be the next “star”.

When individuals don’t sell, Hollywood begins to exploit celebrity couples to make news, produce movies, and just plain make money. Most recently, tabloids were filled with photographs of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck , and a movie was made starring the two actors. A reported flop, the movie still grossed at least a few million dollars at the box office because people were curious to see the new “power couple”. How did the two individuals gain labels such as “power couple”? Once again, it is the workings of Hollywood’s money-making magic, through the use of publicity, and secondly the willing compliance of the people to accept the fabricated image of Tinsel Town’s “biggest stars”. Hollywood is an illusion, a very ethereal entity that depends almost exclusively on the regard of its citizen patrons, and to keep the membership rolling in, Hollywood works hard to keep up its image of glamour and glitz.

You may ask, “How is it that a hard-working MIT student such as yourself is so well-informed and apparently interested enough to be critical of the corruption of Hollywood and its manipulative mechanisms?” This is a reasonable question, as I have been able to discuss Gwyneth Paltrow for the last page and a half without even getting into many details. The fact is, Hollywood and its media allies have done such an effective job of spreading the “news” about the movie world that even individuals such as I, one who has never had a subscription to a magazine and can count the number of times that I have been to a movie theater with one hand (really), cannot help but hear, see, and develop a moderate interest in the make-believe world of Hollywood. Why can’t I just ignore it? The answer is simple. It is because of the well-established place actors, actresses, and the popular media have in our society today. Friendships are sometimes initiated by similar interests in movies, or a shared adoration of a certain movie star, and conversations about “What movies have you seen lately” are more easily approached by more people, than say a discussion about Jane Austen’s works. My social life would certainly be different were I to watch more movies and keep up with the latest Hollywood gossip and styles. I would be talking, shopping, and spending time with a crowd different from my currently close friends, and were I to join a more media oriented group of people right now, despite what I have written here, I would be hopelessly “behind”, and would have trouble contributing to the conversation. Because of its ubiquitous presence in society, though, being blind to Hollywood’s existence is nearly impossible, and as intelligent consumers we can only take a step back and do our best to prevent ourselves from falling into the entertainment business’s revenue trap. Hopefully, Hollywood hasn’t positioned an even deeper hole behind us, one which will engulf us despite our efforts to escape.

Just remember. The next time you look at an actor’s face on the cover of a magazine, stop to think whether his face is there because he truly deserves to be, or whether it’s there because it’s all part of Hollywood’s hoax, Hollywood’s not-so-secret plan to make you believe that he’s worth being placed in the spotlight.