FLIPPY SIDE OF STARDOM

Flippy side of stardom 

By Dilip Cherian
   Consulting partner, Perfect Relations 
The Pioneer
Sunday, September 21, 2003 

Sensationalism on celebrity engagements, weddings, break-
ups and make-ups is churned out in droves by the media.
As the darlings of glitz society saunter from Stage 1 to
cinema, the paparazzi flutter from their hidden bushes to
'click' what everyone around the country is feverishly
clamouring over for, even the smallest tidbit of detail
of a celebrity wedding.

It's glitz, it's glam, it's gaudy and we love it.
Audiences are hungry for it and the media willingly
dishes the story out. Who doesn't want to sneak a peek on
TV of a stylish evening of automobiles, fashion, food,
and wall-to-wall celebrities? For many, it's the climax
of the fan-following journey to view their favourite star
in amazing vintage Italian cars, staged fashion tableaux
of elegant attire, poised in dazzling jewellery during
that fabled, fairy tale moment. An optimal Flippy
syndrome, viewing time is during engagements and weddings
because they run more frequently than the Oscars and
Filmfare Awards, which are annual shows.

The prognosis for acute celebrity fascination disorder is
floating somewhere between our culture of excess and the
tyranny of vicariously 'feeling good', and accepted
boredom. Sex is always in. Girl-next-door Aishwarya Rai
and feline sex symbol Shilpa Shetty have mouths dropping.
Outside, we love old-fashioned qualities of romance and
adore even more any likelihood of an intimate moment with
our celebs. We love them for their good looks and we gape
at them for their lifestyles, but we still want the dirt
and desperately to see them married at the same time. The
gossip mill has aggrandised into a gossip factory where
the tidbit of the moment is snapped up from tabloids and
fashion magazines to music channels and Internet portals.
Celebrities have always been newsworthy but now we are
overwhelmingly concerned with attaching ourselves to any
news of them, a weddings taking headline news of course. 

The pending wedding of mod celebrity couple, Jennifer
Lopez and Ben Affleck, has been postponed. Their trip to
the altar will have to be rescheduled due to the
excessive media attention. They decided to postpone the
date when they found themselves contemplating hiring
three separate 'decoy brides' at three different
locations. It took that long to realise that something
was awry. Lopez and Affleck were going to tie the knot at
an estate in Santa Barbara, California when the 400
invited guests purportedly received phone calls telling
them to hold the rice. Reporters, paparazzi and TV crews
were likely in the process of cancelling reservations
they had made at many of the hotels in the coastal town
north of Los Angeles.

Has the media crossed the line once too far? Maybe and
maybe not. Celebrities love their fans and while there is
a frugal balance to privacy and stardom, the exclusive
wedding doesn't make the cut. If you're a celebrity and
you're getting married, consider it covered. Bollywood
celebrity wedding pictures span Akshay Kumar and Twinkle
Khanna, Madhuri Dixit and Dr Shriram Nene among hoards
more. The power of the photograph lasts long after the
wedding. Our stars love to party and party hard. They are
adventurers who don't have to squint too hard to hear the
euphoria of vicious wild party music in the world of
celluloid style and film. So why should they have the
fun? It's not always possible to gawk at them at the
newest hot spots, the ones with the beamed ceilings,
expansive mirrors, and four floors of plush banquets. The
sympathetic may think that they've paid their dues. 

They've been up with the paparazzi, they've been down,
bent and broken. Shouldn't we just leave them alone? It's
the age of the Flippie! And it's quintessentially Indian.
Read the style and gossip sections to be up to date with
the socialites. Turn on that TV and the display comes
alive with striking graphics that provide information at
a glance. How fair is she? How tall is he? How good do
they look together? Is there any chemistry? Who are the
parents? Now press the volume button, sit back in your
sofa and let the TV deliver the fantastic looks of our
stars with fantastic sound. 

We'll always have access to our stars and their weddings
because it's an audio/visual experience so unique it
never goes out of style for the Flippie. Both celebrity
and public deserve the media they love. In today's
market-driven economy, the media is as much the creation
of the forces of demand as anything else. A flippie
society deserves the media it gets. That's where we are
today and that's where we deserve to be.
 
Read the complete news at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com

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Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

Panchaang for 25 Bhadrapad 5104, Saturday, September 20, 2003:

Shubhanu Nama Samvatsare Dakshinaya Jivana Ritau
     Kanya Mase Krishna Pakshe Manta Vasara Yuktayam
Punarvasu Nakshatr Variyan-Parigh Yog
     Vanij-Vishti Karan Dashami Yam Tithau

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