Swayze rumour mill of imminent death is just plain wrong

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Sensationalist press reports that Patrick Swayze has only five weeks to live reveal the moral bankruptcy of the tabloid press once again, following on from the grotesque and vulgar coverage of Britney Spear’s mental collapse. Of course we’ve seen this mad dash to reach the bottom of the heap before, and will do so again. Boy George in the 1980s was famously reported as having a heroin addiction (true at the time) and having days to live (not true). Freddie Mercury had his sex life probed after it was revealed after his death that he had AIDS. Princess Diana was literally hounded to death.

Sometimes celebrities court headlines irrespective of what’s being said, so long as they make the front page, revealing themselves for all their money to be common as muck, not so much ‘high class’ as ‘no class’. This is especially but not exclusively true of fast-to-rise, quicker-to-fall reality show winners, often chosen to take part on the grounds that they were already deficient in talent, good manners, intelligence and respect before they become known to the public at large.

Newspaper editors really aren’t that far removed from the likes of Nero and Caligula. Instead of Christians and lions, we have celebrities and destructive, attention-grabbing headlines. They raise their thumbs, you succeed; they turn their thumbs down, you find yourself rubbished with culture vultures writing your obituary ahead of time.

It’s just wrong. But if the people peddling these stories make the Marquis de Sade look like a prude, what’s to be said about the readers who gobble up these distressing tales? Are they bitter, wanting the famous to fall to make themselves feel better? Or is it something in the darkness of the human soul that, if allowed unchecked expression, feeds on stories of misery and pain? Personally I have never sensed such ugliness inside myself—I encourage the bright lights within, and am unashamedly soft-centred—which is probably why I don’t enjoy reality shows, never enthuse over celebrity car crash narratives, avoid horror films that eschew cleverly-written tense atmospheres in favour of slice-and-dice, scare-the-shit-out-of-the-audience, go-for-the-jugular gore-fests, and—most of all—never read tabloids or believe the many and frequent lies they spin.

categories: film & video, in the news, rattle bag