For the past few days I’ve been able to catch up on television. As a professional, my bedtime limit is supposed to be 10 p.m. so I can get to the office at a decent hour the following morning. All the good shows and the night news come on at 10 o’clock or later. . . Now I understand why one of my favorite professors swore by TiVo. So, with no new programming coming on this week all my favorite shows are on instant rerun status and that’s fine with me -- I can play catch up. So, the other day I watch E! News and they discuss memorable moments for 2007. Imus and the Richards guy come up and they have Roseanne Barr give her 2 cents and she says “It takes balls to go after people with more money than you, that’s what I do.” Ha! Well, go on Roseanne– ‘cuz Bellini is totally feeling you.
Roseanne’s quote then led me to ponder whether the blogosphere is justified in going after celebrities. Just because they make more money and operate in the public sphere – should celebrities be game? I know you guys are aware of the cybertiff going on between some celebrities and bloggers of color – check December ’07 Essence for a recap. If we apply Roseanne’s logic the bloggers are justified for going after the celebrities. Does it make a difference if the bloggers and celebrities all happen to be black women? – the cattiness of women “meow”!
The rumormill has the women linked to various men all within the same week, impregnated, etc. . . Now, it appears the bloggers feel they are doing the woman a service by suspending their name and image on the minds and tongues of the people. But I’m not sure if the Hollywood adage rings true “all press is good press” – is it? I mean look at Britney she could use a few months without being mentioned in the press – no lip service at all.
Could it be argued that black bloggers are leveling the playing field for black celebrities? Then again, just because white Hollywood has relegated black actors and actresses to the “other” category, does this mean that black folks must feel compelled to operate in the paradigm that the mainstream has established? Couldn’t we operate in a different fashion, so that it’s not the typical Hollywood business as usual?
Food for thought?
cheers,
Bellini
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
the thing i found interesting about this whole black blogger thing is that these actresses would want to even respond to bloggers and that essence would deem such a story "newsworthy". this goes to show that essence is going down...its b/c so tabloid, do we really want to read about blk actresses complaining about random ass bloggers (you just gave them the power) or usher and tameka...i don't. what happened to the stories about ordinary women doing extraordinarily positive things in their communities? maybe this is why s. taylor is stepping down...
humorous thoughts -- ever since Essence let Time Warner buy the magazine I've had an indifferent attitude toward the magazine. Some folks think it's shallow, but there is something magnaminous to being 100% black owned in my book -- that was half the magic of Essence.
I can't remember the last time I read Essence magazine...when I was a kid, it was my dream to have my face where Susan Taylor's is...but never that anymore...
In any event, people who are in the public eye, will always be under a microscope of scrutiny, whether you're black or white. Why come after the black bloggers who are writing in reference to black stars, what about the white ones who don't cover anything black or even degrade black hollyweird more?
And as far as the 'actress' in question, when she becomes oscar worthy than maybe i'll give a d*mn about her opinion, but she'll always be a chitlin circuit actress...sad to say.
@funkyblackchick: interesting viewpoint, although i don't expect white Hollywood to cover us -- i just never had the faith that they would do so in good tatse anyway -- well in other news Susan Taylor is resigning
Post a Comment