You know, there was a time when celebrities held themselves to a higher standard than the rest of us — that with the spotlight came additional responsibilities, especially for musicians or actors who appealed to younger audiences. I’m not saying that they should be held to unrealistic expectations — everyone falters from time to time. But when you have the limelight, your ability to do both good and bad is amplified, and while some celebrities choose to do the former, many ultimately opt for the latter.
I don’t normally blog about celebrities or other Hollywood gossip. The truth is, I really don’t care. I’ve met a few celebrities in my time, and for the most part they were just normal people. In fact, I remember being backstage at the Juno awards when all the recipients came in and their body guards stayed outside. State of Shock walked over and grabbed some beers next to me, Leslie Feist pushed past me with her entourage, and Russell Peters walked into me as he was making he was around the room. For whatever reason, as a society with have this strange preoccupation with celebrities, so much so that many companies have an entire business model based on attempting to defame them. I’m sure there’s enough crud in my life to populate a few different magazine covers, so I really don’t think it’s appropriate to do it to others.
I didn’t watch the awards show last night, but I’ve been reading about it on the Internet today. Truth is what happened with Kanye West last night was just ridiculous, not only for himself, but also for the awards show he was on. I commented on the LA times blog that it was a shameful thing to do, and he ultimately robbed Taylor Swift of a precious moment that she’ll never, ever be able to get back. Of course, he’s now apologized on his blog, and perhaps he should be given the benefit of the doubt about its sincerity. But given how disinterested most people are with music awards in general these days, you’d think more precautions would be made to make sure something like that wouldn’t happen.
If anything, this incident made people pay attention to the MTV Awards more than they did before — just like the last time Kanye did something similar in 2006. This time he looks even more like a jackass (to use the presidential term), but it certainly attracts attention.
If attention of any sort is what he wants (and, given that he’s Kanye West, it’s not unreasonable to assume), then he’s achieved his goal. It’s a shitty goal, but there you go.