True, I'm young, and I still get lured by the beautiful package of those singers, being churned out in rapid mode in a mercantile assembly-line fashion.
I think it's common knowledge that most of our favourite singers or actors are 'packaged products' that exist for the purpose of commercial success, very much the same like a drink or merchandise goods. The motive behind an artiste is to milk as much ker-ching ker-ching as possible out of a transitory, ephemeral career.
Alas, many of us are often blinded by the superficiality of this industry. Our idols are merely packaged with great efficacy to target a certain group (mostly teenagers). Simply put, they are not what they are made out to be.
But, many of those delusional (or should I say, impressionable) teenage fans get siphoned into the management company's drastic efforts to portray a certain kind of image for the star. What you see is merely a caricature of the company's packaging efforts, not the real personality that lurks behind the face that you've come to be so familiar with.
For example, the idol market may be lacking of a cutie pop princess, so out pops Cyndi Wang.
Back to my topic. Because I'm a both a reporter and a fan at the same time, I get to see the side that no one does. Because I'm a reporter, I get access to otherwise restricted areas. But, because I'm a fan at the same time, I get to see the other side of the celeb that no one else does.
Before I go on, let me just list out the various reasons why other netizens don't get to see this side of famous people.
(i) No media gets to see it.
::ONE:: Because they are mostly oldies who don't give a damn about the star they are photographing. It's merely a job for them to pay the bills. Yes, there are some youngsters among the sea of reporters too. But, their level of enthusiasm is no match for mine. (Ha!)
::TWO:: They are the media. Most celebs are intelligent enough to know which side of their bread is buttered. In front of the media, most celebs are patient, friendly, humorous and very, very obliging.
Many celebs resort to chicanery in de rigueur fashion for the sake of building up a good reputation and ensuring that more moolah keep flowing in. Hence, they adopt a sense of perfunctory courtesy and ingratiate themselves with the media, taking on a friendly and sweet (for females) or charming (for males) affectation.
In the hodge-podge, heterogenous world of celebritydom, they are really all facsimile replicas of each other in the friendliness department. They feel incumbent to be on their best behaviour at all times in front of the media.
Unless you are talking to Shu Qi (good luck to you), who famously rebutted the Hong Kong media in a recent inerview with angry retorts like, 'I have no idea what you are talking about! I'm not answering your question!' Otherwise, chances are the fawning artiste will answer all your questions with a cogenial smile plastered across their faces, like as though they are contesting to be the next Miss Universe or Star Search champion. It's a different story altogether when the camera lights have dimmed.
(ii) No fan clubs get to see it.
Again, they are the fan club. Most celebs know better than to get on the bad side of their most devoted supporters. And, since the club manager has the ability to recruit members in support of the celeb, they can avail themselves of their status and power to do just the opposite.
(iii) No fans get to see it.
They don't have access to certain places.
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In case, anyone thinks that getting into this line, means getting bedazzled by the glamour of this industry, it's far from it. Yes, you get privileges here and there, especially if you are way high above in the corporate ladder.
For a start, office-goers have to report for duty at the office at 9am everyday. For me? I report for work at the cinema theatre for a preview screening at 9am in the morning. I am always late always try my best to be on time but somehow, something more important that requires my urgent attention never fails to crop up like catching my favourite show on TV. So, you see, not my fault.
Before I even began writing, I was contemplating whether it was only right that I wrote favourably about the movie since I got free tickets. But, very quickly, I made a stand to write honestly. In the end, one reader commented on the movie as 'crap' after I slammed it oh-so-badly in my review. Oops. I guess the pen works wonders in the entertainment biz. But, the movie honestly sucks. So, you see, not my fault.
Having said that, more often than not, your heart grows cold from the realities of this industry. Standing on a vantage point, having been both a reporter and a fan, I've seen the truest colours of some celebs. The feeling I get is often disillusionment. Simply because these celebs are very different from what you (and once upon a time, me) thought they were!
I'm not naming any names here, but let's just say the cutest and most friendliest stars may turn out to be the coldest bitches in the industry.
The celeb who may smile and chat amicably with fans on stage, may also be the very first to snub the very same fans when they get off stage.
A smiling face is always the most unpredictable.
I wonder if all stars who get elevated into a level of prominence, power and fame, start to think they are of a superior fabric to others.
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Ok, I'm just going to cite one experience of a fortuitous encounter with a celeb where I hit her the wrong way. It's a rather long-winded, drawn-out personal account.
This celeb has always had a healthy image portrayed by the media. She appears to be friendly, cheerful and a very, very sweet and nice girl overall. She also happens to be a very famous figure in the entertainment circles.
During her short jaunt in Singapore, she had many promotional activities to carry out. I was present at all her activities. This meant that I had to follow her around relentlessly the entire day. And, while she gets to sit in her limousine or whatever she sits in, and gets chaffeured around, and spent slots in between media and public appearances sitting around letting the make-up artiste apply war paint on her face, I was in my sweaty garb, taking public transport and chasing her all around town.
Because I see her like 24/7, the empirical impression she gave me was less of the friendly and sweet artiste, and more of the proud, haughty and arrogant stuck-up artiste, with an astronomical ego and cavalier attitude the size of ten elephants. And five monkeys. Heck, even my friend who had only seen her for a few hours also came out feeling the exact same way.
There were fleeting moments in between when I caught the hoity-toity pursued lips aka Meryl Steep in The Devil Wears Prada, I-am-better-than-any-of-you-here look. She was hyprocritical and superficial, but did anyone see that? No. All they cared about was her plastic, make-up pretty and uber gorgeous face.
Which, to tell the truth, is really pedestrian under all that make-up. Sad to say there are so few natural beauties around in the entertainment industry. And, yet, they think the sky of their looks.
That's what happens when you give someone too much fame and money. It corrupts their moral well-being, inflates their confidence level to one of superior hubris, and turns them into someone else altogether.
And, worse thing is, we all netizens are the ones that lavish them with immoderate amounts of adulation, thereby placing them on an invisible pedestral way high above us in the human pecking order.
This is also probably why some artiste can afford to have caviar flown in every weekend to apply on their hair. Yes, you read right, Catherine Zeta Jones has $400 worth of caviar flown in from Iran every weekend to wash her hair with.
Rarely can you find an amalgamation of a famous and rich person, complete with a wealthy personality. Such is the dearth of nice and famous people in the industry.
Usually, any protrayal of such are popular fallacies that people entertain sans questioning minds, which shouldn't be the case, but look how hard The Boy Who Said The Earth Was Round had to convince people whom all blindly believed that the earth took on the form of a square.
In short, celebritydom is a veritable minefield for cockiness and arrogance to breed rapidly like rabies.
Well, during one of said artiste events, I approached her and asked her for her autograph. Her manager or personal assistant rejected my request on her behalf, and said, 'Laterrr, alright? Because she has other events to rush to...'
Note: The management always say 'Later, ok?' as a tactic to brush off persistent
As I don't take 'No' for an answer without trying my doggedly persistent best, I looked for the next opportunity to approach the artiste once again. I always believe you can learn so much from an artiste just by asking him or her for an autograph during a private event, i.e. non-autograph signings events.
So, she attended the next event. And, when she stood up to leave, I rushed forward once again. 'Can I have your autograph, please?' I asked her once again very politely. This time there was no personal assistant or management staff in sight, within a 100-cm radius. Just me and her. She could scribble her signature for me, or she could reject.
Guess what she choose to did?
She looked flustered. There was no one to help her brush me off this time. And, so she said, without looking at me in the eye, 'Er...(looks around)....I still have (stuttering)...I still have another event to rush to' before pointing in another direction. Then, she proceeded to look around, as though willing her personal assistant to hurry up or for one of the staff to give her directions and whisk her off to the next event.
The time that she took to reject my request? She could have signed two or three autographs for me.
I was waiting, and so was she. She had successfully created an emotionally hobbled situation for the both of us. I was waiting for her to sign, and she was waiting for something else to happen so she didn't have to sign. It became pretty obvious that she didn't want to help me sign an autograph. I thought back about her meeting with the media, and how she had quickly acceded to their request to sign on the big promotional board behind her.
She could have been all alone in an empty room with me, and I could have asked her to sign on my T-shirt, and she'd probably look around all flustered before coming up with a moronic excuse like, 'Oh, I am very busy right now, I have to dig my nose.' And, then, she'll stick a finger up her nose, and I will be like 'Ewwww' and she will feel so proud of herself because by now I wouldn't want her signature anymore.
Seriously, she acted as though signing an autograph for me was such a massive, herculean task. But, okay, fine maybe she was being professional and I choose to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Well, I sat back down to my seat in consternation. And, before I knew it, there was a flurry of activity. First, she was whisked out of the room, and next a bunch of people toting huge cameras rushed up in a maniacal frenzy after her.
I don't remember for how long we trailed behind her, before we finally reached another room. I stopped hurriedly in my tracks, as the artiste I was following stopped abruptedly, and was just standing inches before me. The next thing I knew, a very angry-looking manager was shouting at the top of her voice to a staff.
'WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE FOLLOWING US? ARE THEY FROM THE MEDIA OR ARE THEY FANS? IF THEY ARE FANS, WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING US AROUND?!! CAN YOU PLEASE ASK THEM TO STOP, BECAUSE IT IS VERY DISTRACTING FOR ALL OF US!
The staff took all of this in quietly, and then he approached the whole bunch of us. Instinctively, I reached for my media pass and held it before me. One by one, the others left (apparently, they were all fans!), until there was only me and my friend left standing there.
And, then, it suddenly dawned on me! The whole bunch of people that had got up and left were all members of her fan club! The media don't give a damn about following the stars around. Had I crossed my line as a reporter then? Was I being unprofessional?
At first, that was what I felt. A sting of compunction hit me, and that feeling debilitated me to a nervous little twit who was caught red-handed by mum for stealing cookies from the cookies jar. My intestines wound up into a nervous bound, and for a while, my eyes darted to the nearest exit and I contemplated scurrying out.
With only me and my friend left standing there, the manager then turned her blinding attention towards us.
'Who are these people? Are they from the media or are they fans?'
As part of my response, I held up my media pass. By this time, I was too stunned to say a word.
'If you are from the media, can you please get back to where you belong?!" The manager barked at me,
Lacking the authority to argue, I quickly acquiesced to her request. But, not before mentally giving the manager a big fat ZERO for her EQ-ness, or lack thereof.
I had to pass through said artiste on route to getting to my seat. And, everything happened so quickly, that I didn't have time to react. As I whisked past the artiste, she remarked loudly,
'She's not even from the media!'
Ok, alright, I lied. She was actually speaking in soft whispers that so gently caressed the air and floated over to my eardrums through airborne waves. But, with the surroundings as silent as a tombstone, she might as well have been screaming at the top of her lungs, and holding pots and pans and clanking them against each other clamorously, all the while yelling with carte blanche, 'SHE'S NOT EVEN FROM THE MEDIA! SHE'S NOT EVEN FROM THE MEDIA!'
Let's just for a second ignore the tone in which she used to say that offending statement. Yes, it's only one sentence, but it's a gratuitous remark nonetheless, and it incurred my ire. You can assimilate a truckload of collateral meanings from that alone. Let's dissect what she means from the brevity of that one inflammatory remark alone.
::ONE:: She was trying to chase me out.
::TWO:: She knew I was a fan. Is that the way to treat your fan? Clearly, to her, she didn't see any commercial benefit by just that very one fan. She didn't see the need to treat me nicely and politely, because she didn't see any return benefits for her, in terms of dollars and cents. So, a puny existence like me doesn't matter. It's been said that if you want to judge, judge people by how they treat those who can do them absolutely no good. I don't even wish to add on the fact, that I've been following her around the entire day, and the way she saw it fit to return the favour was by attempting to chase me out of an event?
Oh, she remembers me. Judging by how I've approached her twice during her events for her autograph, she quickly assumed that I wasn't part of the media. Simply because members of the press wouldn't give a damn about approaching the artiste for an autograph, unless you are talking a one-to-one interview.
All they care about are getting a few snapshots of the artistes during media events, during which the artistes are mostly on their best behaviour, and the next day in the entertainment pages you get superficial shite like, 'XXX was so obliging and answered all the media queries with a sweet, saccharine smile.' And, readers take in all that shite unquestioningly.
It's always occured to me how local media reports are so surprisingly devoid of any dirt, everything seems oh-so-perfect about the artistes being reported.
Sometimes, of course, you can't afford to be honest when writing an editorial piece. But, other times, it is the fans who refuse to believe that the person they idolise is really just a piece of good-looking trash. So, whatever good that is reported gets devoured devilishly by the fans. What about whatever bad that gets reported?
The fans pen a long letter to the media in question, lambasting the media's bias-ness towards so-and-so artiste, and then what do they do?! They threaten to boycott the magazine or publication!
Seriously, if I was the top management of the publication, would I rather my reporters report truthfully about the artiste and risk suffering a loss, and multiple rejected copies sent back to my department unit, or would I rather paint a colourful picture of the artiste, and the fans will still mechanically, without reason or visceral instinct, swallow everything whole?
Case in reference: Cyndi Wang, who did her promotions for her first few albums in Singapore. The media had several reports on her diva attitude and called her unfriendly, impolite, and nothing like the cute and friendly girl as protrayed in her album image.
Angry fans lashed out at the harbingers, and encouraged readers to boycott the magazine.
Just. Because. They. Didn't. Carry. Favourable. Reports. On. Their. Favourite. Idol(s).
Guess which side I choose to slant to in my postmortem report? Well, for that answer, read on..
When I told my friend who was a fan of said artiste regarding this matter, her response was, 'Why did you tell me about this?! You've just tainted my perfect image of her!"
You see what I mean? Often, fans only hear what they want to hear about their favourite idols. They take everything negative about that artiste with a pinch of salt, and magnify everything positive about the artiste.
Every sacrilegious picture you taint of their idols is always about you being a jealous asshole who can't stand witnessing a fellow human being made good, and always never ever about you being professional in your work ethics and honest enough to tell the truth. Until it comes to a point where dishing the dirt about artistes is sacrosanct, a shaky ground to trespass upon.
Of course, there is another angle to this. In which, dirt dished out on artistes get devoured maniacally by the public, as people all enjoy reading controversies, but there are multifarious angles to any one issue, so that's another story altogether.
But back to the story. The manager's reply to that, was 'Oh, but she's holding the media pass.' Hah! Take that, you bitch.
My impression of her swan-dived overnight. I turned from one of her biggest aficionados to someone who despised and condemened her greatly. I began feeling a great deal of antipathy towards her. Of course, as I've been supporting her for SO MANY YEARS, I can't just kick off that habit of liking her, but, I'm trying.
Oh, did I also mention that she held a fans gathering during her stay in Singapore? During the fans gathering, she was such a loveable creature, that I would have loved her to bits! If I hadn't known better, that is. She was polite, friendly, obliging (took photos with her fans), sweet. In short, she was everything you ever wanted in an artiste. In short, she was everything the media reported her to be.
I was part of that media.
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