The C Word.

I think it's interesting how things have changed and how they haven't, in regards to celebrity opinion.

Back in the 60s, no-one would have really thought to ask actors how they felt about a topical issue but they hammered away at someone like Bob Dylan.  They asked him questions about being the voice of a generation.  They asked him why he was so popular.  These were not questions he could have had the
answers to, only guesses.  He didn't understand why they were being asked of him.  Because he was a talented poet and songwriter, they treated him like an oracle and a guru; instead of just a man who wrote songs because he had to, not necessarily even knowing what they meant.  And they didn't really care about the answer, they just wanted it.  And it pissed them off that he wouldn't just rattle off something glib, pat or simple - a soundbite.  Now that's all we trade in, no-one's got the attention span for anything more, anything deeper.

And now performers are often all too keen to sound off on any number of topics, none too big or too insignificant.  And they don't think it's weird they are being asked.  And indeed they often don't wait to be.  Because they are the chosen ones & it is their duty to tell us all how to live.

Of course I am completely overstating the case. Celebrities are people too. They have the right to be part of the solution. And why not use their influence? Does it matter even why they are doing it? Doesn't the end justifies the means? I don't know that it does really - at least overall. There are the obvious exceptions - Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Robyn Malcolm among numerous others - but mostly I feel that there is a disproportionate amount of noise for the amount of change that is actually inspired. I personally prefer the quiet class of someone like Sandra Bullock who dropped a cool million on New Orleans and on Haiti. And didn't want to talk about it.