The Cautionary Tale of Celebrity

E

Edmund Blackadder

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Is this a case of selling your soul to the devil for 15 minutes of fame?

Alot of you won't know who Jade Goody is, and nor should you.

Jade Goody was a contestant on 2002's Big Brother UK, where she shot to 'fame' as the rather unintelligent, unattractive and ignorant housemate.
She didn't win, but has managed something few others have.
She became one of the most famous women in the UK for nearly 6 years amassing a fortune of upwards of £8million, being the cover girl of glossy rag mags and the oft seen panelist on day time TV.

Her perfume out sold the likes of Victoria Beckhams, her autobigraphies (yes, plural) were consistantly best-sellers and she was always on hand to give her opinion on reality tv, the very demon that gave her this glittering career.

In 2007, however, she returned to whence she came, starring in Celebrity Big Brother, with the likes of Jermaine Jackson (of the 5!), Jo (from S Club 7 - thats for you SC7fan) and Shilpa Shetty (a stunning Bollywood actress) where her career unravelled.
She, along with a couple of others, seemed to bully, oft using what appeared to be racist comments, Shilpa Shetty, inciting a Race Row that echoed all the way through Britain, even into the House of Lords (my comments on whether this was a racist attack or just plain ignorance are not part of this so I won't go into it).

At the time, it seemed like this was the undoing of this woman, ironically because Big Brother seemed to take away in one fell swoop everything it had given her.

Now, this isn't the end of her story with Big Brother either.
In 2008, to try and redeem herself in the eyes of the public, Jade ventured to India to appear in the Indian version of Big Brother, which is hosted by none other than Shilpa Shetty - who apparently holds no grudges.

While on this show, Jade was called to the diary room.
What the general public didn't know was that prior to going to India, Jade had some tests done to find out if she had cancer.
In true Jade style, rather than ask for the results privately, she requested that they were given to her in Big Brother.

The news given to her was not favourable.
The whole world (potentially but probably not!) were given the opportunity to see this woman told she had cervical cancer and that it was life threatening.

I will admit at first to thinking this was a terrible publicity stunt to try and win back her public adoration, but on Friday 13th of February, Jade Goody announced to the press, that the cancer had spread and was terminal - giving her as little as a few weeks to live.

This is sad news, but this is not the end of the Reality TV star's life with the camera.

Her boyfriend of 3 (ish) years is going to marry her and obviously sell the pictures to the highest bidder BUT the thing that really is striking, is the fact that she is currently in talks with TV channels in the UK to film her death for the ultimate reality TV moment.

This woman has admitted her life was started by reality TV, but now it seems she will end it in the manner she lived.

What do you guys, who managed to read this, think?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1145882/Jade-shops-wedding-dress-prepares-die.html
 
I was aware of everything apart from her offering her last few months of life as tv show. To be honest I find that more than vile. On the other hand she could just be trying to leave her two young sons with some form of security that the money from this show will no doubt provide.

I can't help but feel that this is one part of her life that really should remain between her and her family.
 
L
LorneyTunes
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Joyce Summers
I agree with your post entirely...and I also like your banner.
I pity Jade, she is only 27 and has lived a life most of us will never know. She is dying , in the public eye always never a moments peace its a shame, sure I don't know her but anyone suffering catches my attention. Some of my co-workers have been saying quite horrible things about it, I however think what if that was my mother or my partner , or my child how would I be feeling.

I do feel though that her future husband has pound signs in his eyes, but I think Jade is grasping at some kind of love no matter how little it may be. Everytime I see her in the newspaper I don't want to look because we are all waiting for her to die,its horrible and cruel.
 
Kean said:
I was aware of everything apart from her offering her last few months of life as tv show. To be honest I find that more than vile. On the other hand she could just be trying to leave her two young sons with some form of security that the money from this show will no doubt provide.

I can't help but feel that this is one part of her life that really should remain between her and her family.
Click to expand...

Well, her fortune we restimated recently to be worth closer to £10million, and if you add to that the money without a TV show of her death bound to come in from the wedding photos, interviews and any TV appearances she can manage, it could easily become closer to £14 (the wedding pics alone will net her upwards of £2million) - most families never earn that in a life time, so I don't think money is an issue.

Having said that, should her death be held away from TV?
I don't know.

TV gave her everything she has, but one thing Reality TV doesn't show (often) is the one fundamental fact of life - death.

Could this not be the one thing that RTV should show so that it truly can be called Reality TV?

Jade Goody could quite possibly be about to become THE most important person in reality TV, she is almost a living, breathing version of Truman, of the movie, except doing something that even the movie didn't do.

The more I think of it, the more I think this is almost a fitting way for her to end her life - I hope I don't sound callous.
 
It's sad, she's leaving behind two little boys and she's still very young.

I find the idea of her filming her death for a reality tv show quite horrific. What purpose would it serve other than to upset people?

I understand that she's continuing on with the show etc. to secure her children's future financially, but still...

That said, I was reading some comments on another forum on this topic yesterday and was horrified to see what some people are saying about this, that what's happening to her is karma for how she's acted in the past. That's just not on, IMO.
 
L
LorneyTunes
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I still feel that money and security would be in her mind. No matter how wealthy she is now I know I would try and get everything I could together for my kids if I was about to leave them forever. Or maybe I'm just hoping that is her motivation.

Perhaps there is something twistedly poetic about her embarking on this, her final show but is something that I really would not like to watch. I grimace at even the thoughts of it. Imagine her boys seeing the pictures of it online or the footage itself on youtube in years to come. To me that is a horrifically morbid thought.
 
Yes, agree of disagree this woman, she is just someone who has lived her life the bast way she can, she's always seemingly loved her children (I cannot say she does because I, like the rest of you, only see her TV persona) and hasn't harmed me in anyway, so I would appreciate people not being cruel about the woman.

Disagree and take to task, but don't be cruel.

Just so everyone is clear though, I am not a fan of hers, I just find her story quite interesting and filled with irony.
 
Originally when i first heard that she had it announced on tv for millions to see that she had cancer i was almost furious. I was so angry that she'd make something like that so public and i'd almost go as far as to say as a publicity stunt...it's something that seems really private. I just got insanely angry...didn't help that i hate big brother and the fact that they get "fame" for sitting in a house for a couple of weeks whilst others have to work a million times as hard to get even slightly noticed.

But then i was told something that sort of defused my anger a bit. It's that since she's made it a public thing more women then ever are going in to get checked for any signs of cancer...so to be honest maybe something good did come out of it i guess...still don't think i agree with what she did though...
 
I knew of her and what she is known for, i didnt realize she made so much money from all this... interesting.

Clearly I dont think everything is right with her inside. Reality TV may have starter her career but surely as a woman of the benefit culture in the UK this was all about money. Doing something like the filming of your death wont benefit you in any way. Maybe she wants to 'give something back' to the genre which started her but honestly... thats not something I want to see.

Jade's intentions aside, this is undoubtably a new LOW for reality television.... and thats saying something.
 
The more I think about it, the more I disagree that it is a 'new low' for Reality TV.

Reality TV has been consistently bashed because it isn't actual reality.
It can't be as long as there is an edit button, but the fact remains it strives to be as realistic as possible, in some cases (and trust me, as someone who has experience of the medium, there is an intent to bring realism to it), so to add credence to it why not go into the final frontier.

Aly Fan raises an interesting point that it has made more people aware and indeed check about issues because of this woman.

If her death on TV makes even 1 person do something and check themselves out, possibly saving their lives, isn't that a step to justifying what is happening.

Death is something that we all are heading for but few people face.

Maybe Jade isn't doing this for the correct reasons (what those might be, I have no idea) but in a way, maybe she is doing one of the greatest things her life has to offer, make people stop for a moment and think about the unthinkable - which may in turn help some (obviously most people will ignore the show if it is on) re-evaluate their lives and really prioritize what actually matters.

The more I think about it, the more I am impressed with the idea of this - though I do get Keans point about the children, but maybe they can take some comfort, solace, from it later in life. They can see their mother in her last moments, which I am sure will be moments of love for those kids, her family and friends.
 
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Silum
i just think that reality TV is not the place to express something like death... its a cheap, exploitive medium that we could all be better off without
Never been a fan of Jade, or "Reality TV" in general. However, my thoughts are with her at this time. I've been through the heartache of losing a loved one from cancer and wouldn't wish it on anyone. Whatever she does now is for her family and her past means very little.
 
Silum disagrees: i just think that reality TV is not the place to express something like death... its a cheap, exploitive medium that we could all be better off without
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TV is one of the greatest mediums we have.
It is the best way to get to people en masse.

The problem is, when people say 'Reality TV' they immediately think of Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity or X-Factor because these are the most prominent, however reality TV at its core is supposed to deal with reality.
These shows have taken the moniker and ran with it, but documentary programmes, like Panorama and Horizon, or others like magazine shows, Watchdog and Crimestoppers, are also a sub-section of this genre.

I don't see how, if done tastefully, it is wrong to actually show death in this format.
 
Edmund Blackadder said:
TV is one of the greatest mediums we have.
It is the best way to get to people en masse.

The problem is, when people say 'Reality TV' they immediately think of Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity or X-Factor because these are the most prominent, however reality TV at its core is supposed to deal with reality.
These shows have taken the moniker and ran with it, but documentary programmes, like Panorama and Horizon, or others like magazine shows, Watchdog and Crimestoppers, are also a sub-section of this genre.

I don't see how, if done tastefully, it is wrong to actually show death in this format.
Click to expand...
I see what your saying, and of course reality TV can take on whatever meaning you want. I remember loving as a kid that show '999' where they did dramatic reconstructions of incidents... just showing relaity in disastrous circumstances.

Unfortunately ive also seen the american version of reality entertainment with people offering themselves up for marage to see who will win, putting geeks against busty morons to see who will match up, and numerous other acts of rediculous entertainment.

These shows work great because the majority of <enter high horse> the audience are downright stupid and will willingly embrace this type of television <end high horse>

The costs involved with this kind of production are pennies and the revenue generated is massive, effectively threatening other forms of television that are much more costly yet much more entertaining for the viewer who isnt a moron.

If you want to argue that reality tv (of the big-brother esk reality TV genre in which we are talking about) is good for TV, then i will have to disagree. Reality TV in my opinion PRETENDS to represent the human condition. Portraying death is nothing more than another stunt in a long line of stunts where execs pit the gayest gay they can find against the fundy Christian or a KKK member thrown into the african jungle. It may pretend to represent human conflict... in fact its a predetermined mess of ridiculous proportions.
 
Silum said:
I see what your saying, and of course reality TV can take on whatever meaning you want. I remember loving as a kid that show '999' where they did dramatic reconstructions of incidents... just showing relaity in disastrous circumstances.
Click to expand...

A little off topicness for the moment.
I loved how in 999 they ALWAYS left out the 'victim' until after it was revealed if they lived or died - when they mostly lived.
It was pure drama with Michael Burke!

Silum said:
Unfortunately ive also seen the american version of reality entertainment with people offering themselves up for marage to see who will win, putting geeks against busty morons to see who will match up, and numerous other acts of rediculous entertainment.

These shows work great because the majority of <enter high horse> the audience are downright stupid and will willingly embrace this type of television <end high horse>

The costs involved with this kind of production are pennies and the revenue generated is massive, effectively threatening other forms of television that are much more costly yet much more entertaining for the viewer who isnt a moron.

If you want to argue that reality tv (of the big-brother esk reality TV genre in which we are talking about) is good for TV, then i will have to disagree. Reality TV in my opinion PRETENDS to represent the human condition. Portraying death is nothing more than another stunt in a long line of stunts where execs pit the gayest gay they can find against the fundy Christian or a KKK member thrown into the african jungle. It may pretend to represent human conflict... in fact its a predetermined mess of ridiculous proportions.
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Hmmm I agree and disagree and I will tell you for why.
I was on a reality TV show in 2007.

I was, along with 14 others, sent to an Island just off New Zealand where we were forced to live without modern amenities and see of we could live for three months.

This cost the BBC £18m in total (FYI - I didn't know that until after, I think that is a disgusting figure for a TV show that is publically funded and had some very strong things to say in the press when I found out) and wasn't simply a task of sitting in a house and looking like muppets.
If we wanted food we grew it, we fished for it or we went without.
If we wanted water, we pumped it from a well in the ground, we boiled it to clean it then drank it.
If we wanted to sleep safely from the weather (which was typhoon season) we had to build shelter.

There were the Christian/Muslim pairings, the fat(FYI me)/muscle pairings, the politically left/politically right pairings, the scroungers/the hard workers, the fame hungry people but at its core it was about community, about building a sustainable one with all these different aspects of modern Britain and it was a challenge.

The problem is, this wasn't fun to watch - at all (hence the reason no second series!).

There was something infinitely interesting in the first series of Big Brother before it became about the gimmick, it really was interesting to watch these guys and gals unfold on screen and behave in ways that was odd but the medium has gone and taken the Reality out of it.

Maybe Jades on screen death will either bring back the Reality of Reality TV or be the final nail in its coffin.
 
I really feel for Jade Goody and her family. It must be horrible to know you've got only months to live and Jade being Jade, I see why she would want to do this. Some financial security for her kids, and (probably) also going out with a bang, which is, I can imagine, definitely her style.
It's just, I don't know, I'm afraid that the people who will watch this are not other young women who suddenly realise it's been more than two years since they last had major cancer check. More likely she'll get an audience of sensation seeking, probably drunk, and so on people (ie, the general Big Borther viewer), which will turn this (if done well) not entirely tasteless concept in just another reality tv show (of the bad kind). And that's not what any dying person deserves, really. I mean, whichever network will broadcast it will try to make as much money off it as possible, there will be marketing, people will gossip about it ("Have you seen it yesterday? She looked so ridiculous in that hospital nighty, and I think she gained weight." "I know! And then that ugly white coffin she picked!"), it just seems so wrong and respectless. Not from her side, I think I can understand that, but from peope who will try to make money off this, and people who will watch.
 
X
xaphania
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Edmund Blackadder said:
TV is one of the greatest mediums we have.
It is the best way to get to people en masse.
Click to expand...

I'd be more likely to say that TV is the medium with the greatest potential yet it is consistantly used in the most low-brow, debased fashion.

As for it being the best way to get to people en masse, that may not necessarily be a good thing.

I've never watched Reality TV. (Except for the NEWS) The whole thing disgusts me and I just avoid it completely. Showing a person dying for bucks is just so sad and wrong.

Uncle Rory
 
I feel pretty terrible for Jade, and her children. No one deserves this. But, it's her life, and I guess with all the money she has it's very much her own choice how she wants it to end.

I think the UK is f**ked, the whole reality TV thing has gone too far, they've made a monster, just like Frankenstein did.
 
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