As with people who seem to live their entire lives on social media – and before I became a little more self-aware, so did I – I get the impression that ‘celebrities’, which is a catch-all word encompassing a wide demographic of people including those whose fame is celebrity alone, are not as happy as they pretend to be. Like the gurning social media photos which are always accompanied by words such as great, fantastic and brilliant, but never average and adequate, the world of celebrity fakery seems to me to be a horrible place.
For reasons of habit, I follow the Daily Mirror newspaper on twitter, broadly speaking because of its historically left of centre editorial stance but along with that comes a depressing monsoon of celebrity tat. Today, in a stunning example barrel-scraping, the Mirror runs with a story about the former ‘Page 3 girl’ Katie Price.
The term ‘Page 3 girl’ – and I am someone who enjoyed more than a peek in less enlightened times – feels absolutely weird these days, like the Black and White Minstrels, throwing bananas at black footballers and the alleged comedian Jim Davidson. (I appreciate younger readers will not have the first idea of what I’m talking about in this paragraph and I strongly recommend that, especially with reference to Jim Davidson, it’s better to keep it that way.) It’s what Katie did next that always baffles me.
Anyway, the Mirror reports on the exciting news that Price has secured the services of a surrogate mother to carry her sixth child. The newspaper reports that the surrogate mother is a fan of Price’s and has even babysat her five children, but is now having second thoughts about the surrogate process. And that’s the whole story, such as it is.
I read it out of curiosity, I suppose, because the whole thing was so weird. And that makes me as bad as everyone else who reads it because it’s bonkers. After all, such ‘news’ items exist for newspaper sales and on-line clicks and to that end the Mirror has successfully dragged me in where I should really be focusing on real news stories like Billie Eilish bringing Barbie to life at the Leeds festival (I have no idea what this means), rail workers being on strike again and today’s vital search for the Loch Ness monster. Instead, here I am watching a video on the Daily Mirror website about the tragic life of someone with zero talent, other than the generation of mass publicity by way of a terrible freak show.
If Price really is happy in her life, then I am pleased for her. The Mirror clip shows her being chased by the paparazzi as she leaves a building with a musclebound gentleman, walking along a street and then getting into a car and that, my friends, is news. And while I have concerns for Price’s well-being, I fear far more for the hordes of Brits who are somehow fascinated by her life and lifestyle.
Perhaps, I could understand it better if Price had a modicum of talent, but beyond self-publicity she has none. She lives in a completely made-up world where nothing is real and everything is mad and where ordinary folk literally pay money to watch and read about it.
It’s as if we live in the Truman Show where the the media creates an alternative reality for new age stars and we all watch them. I am not remotely interested in the life of Katie Price and yet I am because I have blogged about it. I clicked on the clickbait Mirror site, following and then joining the herd and in my small way, I am part of the problem.
