"piece of me" : on celebrity.

OHH, SNAP. The situation has been heating up between Julia Allison and her reblogger.

Now, I've openly admitted before that I read Julia (and Mary and Meghan), followed by Reblogging Julia. And while even I've winced a time or two picturing actually being in Julia's shoes, I can't say it stopped me from reading (sorry, Julia!).

Here's the interesting part to me: When you actively pursue fame, are you obligated to accept the total package? This is not a new or particularly interesting question. It comes up every couple months in some celebrity rag or another, in the form of Little Miss Badass Hollywood (or Mr.) taking a swing at the paparazzi, and then ending up in oodles of legal trouble herself/himself. You see it raised in the profiles on actors and rockstars in the (slightly less cutthroat) magazines too, where celebs will wearily discuss the costs of fame.

But this situation with Julia Allison seems to shine light anew on the question, because Julia makes her living speculating about and commenting on the lives of celebrities (as Star Magazine's Editor-at-Large). In addition to that, Julia is a dating columnist for Time Out New York, blogs compulsively (that is, until her self-appointed recent "hiatus"), and has recreated an idea of herself as something of a "(wo)man about town." Julia has no trouble breezing through different crowds of folk, or reaping the kind words that have been said about her, but where she runs into trouble is with the unfavorable reviews.

Because it's 4:22am and if I don't blog this now, I likely never will, and because I don't really have anything effervescently new to add to the conversation about Fame, just more questions, I will just say: Girl, read the recent New Yorker profile on George Clooney (Profiles: Somebody Has To Be in Control: The effort behind George Clooney's effortless charm." By Ian Parker. New Yorker, April 14, 2008: pp. 40-49). There is a star who knows how to maneuver around and through fame . . . and still manage to have quite a decent dating life. Some pertinent quotes:

"He capped a conversation about paparazzi intrusions with a politic acknowledgment of the privileges of fame." (40)

"There's something ... old-fashioned about the way a public version of Clooney's private life has kept his actual privacy intact. He in incessantly winning but not confessional: the media gets its wine and cheese, and Clooney--without taking visible offense at any question, without ever taking the conversation off the record--holds on to his soul." (43)

"I do close down, there's no question about it. I've got a long driveway, and I've built fences, and in Italy I bought the house next door to keep the paparazzi out. And that's why you make the house like a playground, in a way, and your friends come over and you have a movie theater and you grill out on a Sunday night, and create the world that can be really fun and pleasant. Because sometimes it's not so fun to go out." (47)