When my daughter was 3 she came to me with her tiny toddler voice and said, "mommy, i wanna be on Tv!" Although she was only 3 and saying it so cutely i still laughed it off as just a kid saying they wanted to be on Tv. Then she went to Disney for Christmas when she was 3 1/2. Her big eyes stared up at the stage and you could see the glitter sparkle in her eyes as the costumes went spinning on the beautiful princess' twirled and danced around. After that moment i never heard the end of her wanting to be famous via acting. I, however, was not ready for my 3 year old to be the next thing or even have her think that she could become the next big thing. She did some theatre and went on auditions for bigger things. She got a few call backs, but after awhile i put a stop to it all. I figured there was plenty of time later in her life for her to get her hopes up only to be crushed by not getting a part. Plus, Hollywood tends to destroy people. And i want better for my daughter. Once she is 18 she can make that choice for herself, for now, i want to keep her grounded in the reality of the midwest lifestyle.
Over the years, if you were paying attention, you have seen celebrities from all ages go from the top of their career to the bottom of the barrel. Just a few that come to mind, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, and now Charlie Sheen. All three got their start in the industry as children. Charlie's father was an actor so he was born into it, which should have meant he wouldn't dive off the deep end because of starting off in the industry young, right? Not true it seems.
If you have been watching Tv, reading the newspaper/magazines, or checking up online at all in the last week, then you are watching Charlie Sheen fall apart at the seams and losing his day job. Although i never saw him as a huge celebrity figure, in the eyes of many, Charlie Sheen was a pretty big thing. And as the old saying goes, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall..." And so it seems with the way Hollywood works. The public will build up people {celebrities} and then sit back and watch them fall. As hard as they pushed to make their way to the top and have their fans love and adore them, celebrities seem to push just as hard to manipulate the truth of what they turn into. And it seems the advancements in the internet mean we all have a front row seat to their chaos.
The truly sad thing about celebrities falling down, is that no one really cares to pick them back up again. Once they fall, people turn their backs and move onto the next great thing. And as it stands in Hollywood today, the next BIG thing is always right there to pick up the slack for the ones who fall. That being said, the harder they fall the more attention these celebrities get for falling down. They then realize their career in the mainstream as a "normal" celebrity is all but over, so they ride the wave of their spiraling down and continue on doing crazy bad things for the attention. And the public eats it up. They watch the TMZ videos, they scour the internet for more juice, they tweet all about it, facebook their friends, come up with t-shirts that carry the persona or catch phrase of the downed celeb, and they even laugh and make jokes at this celebs misfortune. Catch any late night Tv show and you will know exactly what i am talking about.
Hollywood is a place where dreams come true, and dreams are broken. It is a place where the ordinary person can become an overnight sensation, and the uber famous can become a loser in the span of a night. Just ask Mel Gibson after not just one, but two crazy events. After he made the movie Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson was seen in the eyes of many as a great Holy person. The Christian community adored him and many friends of mine thought he was a "hero" for making that movie. Once his tirade took place, just two years after this "glorious" movie made him amazingly famous around the world, these same friends of mine claimed they never actually liked Mel Gibson.
So are hollywood celebrities "winning" as Charlie Sheen puts it? Unless you are able to keep your level head, stay grounded in reality and stay clean {no drugs & no hard core drinking} then the answer is... NO! With tabloids, interviews, magazine covers, paparazzi following their every move, and people throwing themselves and free items at these people; {sarcasm ahead warning...} with all of that going in in their life, i can't imagine why they are unable to stay grounded in how the real world lives. They create a celebrity bubble around the famous of the famous and treat them like they can do no wrong. Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock is an over the top character, but it is how i think many celebs truly act from time to time. Have you ever seen a rider for some of the band/singers/actors? the shit they ask for is Cra-Zay! It's stupid that just because they are "famous" they get to have a dressing room with all pink or green, or whatever color they choose... All because they say so. There are few celebrities out there able to stay somewhat grounded. Matt Damon comes to mind as one of the few people who have had hit movies, yet they have a non-celebrity wife, kids, and a home outside of LA where they keep it somewhat real. And sure, NYC isn't exactly like living in the middle of corn county America, but it is much better than LA any day of the week.
If you have been watching Tv, reading the newspaper/magazines, or checking up online at all in the last week, then you are watching Charlie Sheen fall apart at the seams and losing his day job. Although i never saw him as a huge celebrity figure, in the eyes of many, Charlie Sheen was a pretty big thing. And as the old saying goes, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall..." And so it seems with the way Hollywood works. The public will build up people {celebrities} and then sit back and watch them fall. As hard as they pushed to make their way to the top and have their fans love and adore them, celebrities seem to push just as hard to manipulate the truth of what they turn into. And it seems the advancements in the internet mean we all have a front row seat to their chaos.
The truly sad thing about celebrities falling down, is that no one really cares to pick them back up again. Once they fall, people turn their backs and move onto the next great thing. And as it stands in Hollywood today, the next BIG thing is always right there to pick up the slack for the ones who fall. That being said, the harder they fall the more attention these celebrities get for falling down. They then realize their career in the mainstream as a "normal" celebrity is all but over, so they ride the wave of their spiraling down and continue on doing crazy bad things for the attention. And the public eats it up. They watch the TMZ videos, they scour the internet for more juice, they tweet all about it, facebook their friends, come up with t-shirts that carry the persona or catch phrase of the downed celeb, and they even laugh and make jokes at this celebs misfortune. Catch any late night Tv show and you will know exactly what i am talking about.
Hollywood is a place where dreams come true, and dreams are broken. It is a place where the ordinary person can become an overnight sensation, and the uber famous can become a loser in the span of a night. Just ask Mel Gibson after not just one, but two crazy events. After he made the movie Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson was seen in the eyes of many as a great Holy person. The Christian community adored him and many friends of mine thought he was a "hero" for making that movie. Once his tirade took place, just two years after this "glorious" movie made him amazingly famous around the world, these same friends of mine claimed they never actually liked Mel Gibson.
So are hollywood celebrities "winning" as Charlie Sheen puts it? Unless you are able to keep your level head, stay grounded in reality and stay clean {no drugs & no hard core drinking} then the answer is... NO! With tabloids, interviews, magazine covers, paparazzi following their every move, and people throwing themselves and free items at these people; {sarcasm ahead warning...} with all of that going in in their life, i can't imagine why they are unable to stay grounded in how the real world lives. They create a celebrity bubble around the famous of the famous and treat them like they can do no wrong. Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock is an over the top character, but it is how i think many celebs truly act from time to time. Have you ever seen a rider for some of the band/singers/actors? the shit they ask for is Cra-Zay! It's stupid that just because they are "famous" they get to have a dressing room with all pink or green, or whatever color they choose... All because they say so. There are few celebrities out there able to stay somewhat grounded. Matt Damon comes to mind as one of the few people who have had hit movies, yet they have a non-celebrity wife, kids, and a home outside of LA where they keep it somewhat real. And sure, NYC isn't exactly like living in the middle of corn county America, but it is much better than LA any day of the week.
Don't let this happen to another Celebrity!
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