Oh, the glittery glam, the fabulous fame, the mountainous money, makes stardom so sexy; doesn’t it? Celebrity status is dreadfully alluring; isn’t it? A champagne existence can be an intoxicating fantasy, but celebrity dreams can become nightmares.
Yes, being a superstar can be a priceless adventure, but likewise, it can carry an immeasurable debt — your privacy is lost forever. With fame ALL your confidential matters go global; your name gets 99,900,000 plus results on Google like that of Demi Lovato. Celebrity status, like tobacco, should come with a health warning, perhaps a picture of shaved headed Britney on every packet of fame.
Before you yearn fame, think of the problems you’ve experienced — mistakes made, arguments, friends lost, relationship breakups, and all the other challenges in life, now imagine all them challenges published in tabloids, magazines, shared on Twitter, discussed on Facebook? No that isn’t nice, but it’s a part of the game if one’s a VIP.
Last month, we saw a person hit the headlines for something thousands of people do every day. Why was this one person chosen for the headlines? Because she was a celebrity, a product of Hollywood, who was crashing and hence, would make big news.
Fame vultures announced the news of Demi Lovato’s suspected overdose, and consequently, the cameras circled to feast on her misfortune. Quickly word spread on Mass Media that the Texas singer, found unconscious in her apartment bedroom, had apparently overdosed on heroin. But, heroin being the catalyst of the overdose has been vehemently denied by those close to Lovato.
No Sirens Please.
“Wait. No Sirens Please” said the caller who rang 911 to report Lovato’s overdose — seemingly out of a desire for privacy in the emergency call which was later released to media. The caller’s request is proof of the desperate desire of celebrities to keep their issues private and away from the media. “No, no, this is a medical emergency. I don’t have control over that,” the dispatcher responded.
Lovato is a classic example of the pressure that comes with fame and how it impacts on a person’s life. Her first breakthrough came on that cuddly children show Barney & Friends when only 6. Yet, it was in her early teens that Lovato’s popularity rapidly grew; she entered the Disney sphere and starred in the movie Camp Rock. When the Movie hit the big screen, Lovato was only 15 and yet jumping up Hollywood’s glittering ladder.
Suddenly she found herself an idol for young adults, someone whose image was being painted as squeaky clean. In truth, the Disney star was suffering from depression, an eating disorder, self-harm, alcohol and drug usage. At the age of 18, she entered Rehab for the first time.
What makes life harder for celebs like Lovato is their battles with problems are always in the public eye — their issues are popular, you come become meat for panels on tv shows to discuss.
In November 2017, Lovato’s second documentary film aptly named Simply Complicated was released. The documentary opened with Lovato being simply asked: “How are you feeling?” The 26-year old’s response: “I actually have anxiety around this…interview”. A potent answer given her history. And when the interviewer asked why? Anxious Lovato replies: “The last time I did a long interview like this I was on Cocaine”.
In the gripping first half of the documentary, Lovato talked about her problems. How she felt a pressure to look at certain way, to sing music that she thought people would like, rather than the music she would like. She explained how she was being made into someone she didn’t want to be. How she was publicly being painted as someone’s whose life was perfect when really it was full of problems. Sadly, the second half of the documentary gives a typical Hollywood happy ending which now looks weak. Unfortunately, Lovato couldn’t keep to the script.
Lovato is an example of how a celebrity’s life can go off the rails. One can only hope she can recover; many famous have succumbed to death from acute drug use like Judy Garland, Peaches Geldof, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, Prince, and Ike Turner.
When you are a celebrity you lose the full control of your life. You are put on stage and expected to perform flawlessly, and any mistake is going to be intensely studied — you’re always under a microscope. As a star you must entertain us every hour of every day, not just when singing or acting. Time to yourself is non-existent. And that’s the problem with being a star, you lose control of your identity. You become a product for the world to play with. Your life isn’t really yours anymore.
