Deification of celebrities

[andy-hughes]

The recent sad death of Steve Irwin gives rise to the deification of celebrities after their death. Specifically Caron Keating, with whom the Daily Mail enjoys a ghoulish obsession. As far as most people are concerned, she was an average TV presenter, no more talented or pretty than most others, but her tragic death has raised he to Godlike status, mainly through the public grief of her mother - who fits the same catagory. Today, the Mail prints a picture of 'Caron's husband' getting married. Caron who? What do you mean you don;t know who! Russ Lindsay is not an individual, he is the widower of Caron No-Surname-Required. The Mail gushes that Gloria Hunniford chose not to attend the wedding. i should blooming well hope not! It would be the height of bad manners, not to say bad taste, to roll up to the wedding of a man who was married to your deceased child. So, does anyone agree that the endless 'grieving' for people that none of us knew, based it seems largely on physical attraction, is bogus and unpleasant? Thought - Patrick Moore who has ben on TV longer than anyone alive will not receive such attention on the day of his passing - anything to do with his gender, his subject, and his not being sprayed with evolution's aftershave?

[sp1814]

Andy

Excellent question. I was thinking of writing something along the same lines myself, but I was going to ask it from another viewpoint ("Is there anyone famous whose death would upset you?").

My guess is that age has a lot to do with it. If someone is deemed to have lived a rich a full life, then their life is celebrated. If they seem to have been 'cut down in their prime', then we tend to mourn their passing with a greater sense of regret.

Does that make any sense?

[andy-hughes]

Thank you.

I appreciate that Ms. Keating's death was tragic, but my issue is not that people think it sad, it;s that almost two and a half years later, her poor husband is still referred to as an extention of her, instead of an individual in his own right, and his wedding to someone he loves overshadowed by this ghoulish reverence for her from journalists who probably never met her.

What offends me is the idea that we should all wring our hands and weep because a pretty presenter is dead, even more than two years on, her poor family canot celebrate their happiness in a new life because her spectre is alowed to hang over their wedding like Banquo at the feast, and her supremely egotisitcal mother wants the world to know of her own emotional largesse in staying away from the event.

God forbid that I should loose my dear wife, but if I found hapiness again, my inlaws would not need to worry about the appropriateness - or not - of their presence at our wedding - they would not be invited in the first place!

[WaldoMcFroog]

I certainly agree about the deeply nauseating mawkishness that seems to have been de rigeur since Saint Diana carked it, but I'm not sure that I agree with you on the in laws, Andy.

If something were to happen to my wife and it were me about to remarry, I could quite see my in laws being invited and it not being a problem (assuming I hadn't bumped my wife off in the first place..!). I would have thought it quite an appropriate guesture to make, to let them know that you hadn't forgotten about their daughter. I would hope they'd be happy for me.

[jake-the-peg]

Maybe it depends on the media you read or watch.

I have to admit I have no idea who Caron Keating was or really any of the story you refer to but I'm pretty sure when Patrick Moore dies there'll be plenty of retrospectives and tributes.

As for in-laws I guess some people are closer than others, I certainly wouldn't want to shut the door on friends and relatives of my ex-wife but I have to admit attending the second weddings sounds like a closer relationship than most!

[sp1814]

With regard to this particular story, yes - it would be distinctly odd for the mother of the deceased to turn up to the wedding of their ex-son in law.

I honestly believe that some newspapers suffer from...
'tragedy addiction'. There are certain celebrities who have, as you have said, been raised to the status of demi-gods due to their early demise.

I'm not going to reel through a list of names, out of respect, but newsreaders, presenters and pop stars who die young aren't necessarily legends...they just happened to have died young.

God...I've just re-read that and I sound cold. Don't mean to be.

[andy-hughes]

Fair point Waldo.

What gets me is not that Gloria Huniford is not attending the wedding, but that a) the Mail know, because she probably told them, and b) it's an issue opurely because she is 'famous' as was her late daughter. Frankly, neither of them have cut such a swathe through our national culture that they deserve this kind of attention - an accusation which could not be levelled at Diana, although again the attention is utterly disporoprtionate.

[admarlow]

only ''good'' famous people die young

[andy-hughes]

Jake - that's my point.

Tributes and retrospectives, where appropriate are fine, although in Caron Keating's case, i don;t think presenting on TV rates a particuarly in-depth look back at her life and career.

My point is that no-one will be mooning over Patrick Moore two and a half years after his death.

My main beef is the reference to Russ Lindsay as 'Caron's husband' on the day when that is exactly what he ceased to be, legally, having ceased to be so literally in April 2004.

Caron Keating is dead. Sad? Of course/ Tragic? Possibly? Newsworthy by proxy years later? Definitely not!

If Ms. Keating died with anything like the dignity her mother constantly banged on about to anyone who would listen. she would abhor this ghoulish approach to the future hapiness of the man she loved.

[sp1814]

I think I see Ansy's point with regard to this specific story. You get the kind of feeling along the lines of:

..."You're not going to the wedding? Well? What's your point? It's his day, and his wife's day...why have you phoned the news desk to tell us this? Leave us alone...okay, well print it..but enough with the phone calls already..."

...kind of thing.

[matt66]

God forbid if Jade Goody were to kick the bucket........would there be any spare square inch for my bouquet of flowers.

[matt66]

Not forgetting the ubiquitious floral offering in the shape of the word WHY !!!!!!. Was it you andy leaving those markers at every celebrity death. The best one that had me laughing was when Paul Mccartneys ex wife died. there were candles lit for her in London with the yeah you guessed it WHY floral motif.

[janetsflower]

If Caron Keating han't been the daughter of Gloria Hunniford, a woman who is still "famous",if thats the right word for it, then probably she would have been left to rest in peace by now. But Gloria has done a lot for cancer charities since her daughter died and has acheived much of this by keeping Caron in the spotlight and playing on peoples heart strings by highlighting the children she left behind. Thats the bit that most of us, especially probably, other parents relate to - the tragedy of leaving your young children behind. Diana is another example, the family she came from being quite famous but a lot of the public grief felt and expressed that tragic day was in sympathy for the poor little boys she left. Other people who are just "famous on their own" are forgotten more quickly. well thats what I think anyway

[andy-hughes]

No matt66 - mine said -

"Life is like that, and so is death. You didn't know this person! Get over yourself!"

but they seem to have been mysteriously moved out of camera range!

[Lorcan]

I'd been thinking the same for ages Andy. During Unplanned a year or so back, David Baddiel did a routine about how he got so nervous about splitting up with a girl that he wished she would just drop dead.
I don't agree. If Caron (a fairly lowly celebrity) had split from Russ (a virtual unknown) it might not even have made the papers. Beacause of her death Russ is still 'news' story fodder and some mean-spirited people criticise his remarriage (a good thing) as 'too soon.'

[janetsflower]

Anyway i am sure caron would have wanted her husband to re-marry and be happy again, thats what any decent woman would want isn't it?

[andy-hughes]

My point Lorcan, is that Russ Lindsay is not just 'a virtual unknown', he should, and would probably wish to be, a total unknown. Russ Lindsay is a showbusiness agent, he represents Anthea Turner and Philip Schofield, and Peter Powell is his business partner, hence his connections, and their presence at his wedding.

Were it not for the Mail's endless banging on about the deity that Caron Keating (deceased) and the 'fame' of her rather over-rated mother who has made a virtual second career out of trying to be the only mother who ever buried a child - then the poor man would have been able to enjoy his wedding with his family and the woman he loved, without it being over-shadowed by the holier-than-thou mail wagging its disapproving finger at him on the day. That is what my rant was, and is about.

[Scotman84]

Like the Steve Irwin smokescreen - what have you really got against Caron Keating?

[andy-hughes]

Nothing what ever Scotman84. My beef is with the media who persist in maintaining that her loss is more tragic and memorable, based on a degree of physical attraction and a media career.

This reaches it's apex, when well over two years after her death, her former husband is identified as 'husband of Caron ...' in that nauseating creepy way that papers have of assuming that she needs no surname because she has never been away from readers' thoughts for even a day.

This poor man has had to raise two children and get on with life after loosing his wife to cancer, and even on his wedding day, the papers insist on making him an add-on to his first wife's memory, while his previous mother-in-law has to let it be known that it would be 'too painful' for her to attend.

I just want a sense of proportion here. Caron Keating was an averagely personable averagely talented TV presenter who died early from cancer. And that's all.

[dummkopf]

sp1814 --- That would have been a good thread....I'd miss Terry Wogan , he puts a smile on my face in the mornings (when he's not on holiday of course)
I like his humour, but it's probably an age thing !

[El D]

I don't know who she was and I don't care that she died.