A-Rod, Christie Brinkley, and the Summer of Tabloid Divorce
At some point, we recognize these are real people. Once we get past the “Oh my god, did you see what she did now?” moments, we step back and think, “there’s a girl who needs some help.” You start to feel more like a voyeur and less like a casual observer. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, watching someone unravel so publicly.
At least for me it is.
I’ve reached my “Britney” moment with Christie Brinkley. The fact that she chose to make these divorce proceedings so public has eliminated sympathy I might have held for her. While her soon-to-be ex is certainly a charmless idiot with a dozen or so character flaws, Brinkley has not done herself any favors by turning this divorce into an attention whore’s fantasy. She has come off like a deranged Stepford Wife, a domestic robotron with OCD tendencies and protectiveness issues that border on outright phobias. She has a classic case of super mom syndrome, someone who is so singularly obsessed with portraying herself as the perfect mother that she puts her emotional need for perfection ahead of her children’s needs.
She pushed for this trial to be public, without considering how it would affect her children to have the proceedings put out for public consumption every single day. Whether it’s her ego that made her want that (so everyone can see what a perfect mother she is or sheer vindictiveness toward her husband), it’s a self-centered decision on her part.
The first rule of a divorce involving children is supposed to be “Don’t’ speak ill of your spouse in front of the kids.” How is pushing for a public divorce trial not flaunting this unwritten, yet important, rule? Whatever Mother of the Year awards Brinkley was gunning for, she lost my vote.
The judge in the Brinkley trial said “open courtrooms, in general and in divorce actions, may provide a basis for societal education.”
Maybe there are lessons to be learned from these stories. Maybe somewhere out there, a housewife is reading the Sun and gaining valuable knowledge from the divorce saga of Christie Brinkley. Come on: do we really need that kind of education? Will the marital failings of a wealthy, narcissistic couple really teach us anything valuable besides how to sell newspapers?
Whatever dubious educational value exists, it is certainly not worth subjecting blameless children to having their private lives turned into public ridicule.
Besides, I think the Beatles already taught us all the lesson anyone is going to get out of this: Money can’t buy you love.
I saw a clip of Christie Brinkley on the news walking out of the courtroom and she was wearing a very conservative skirt and a granny sweater set with pearls or some chain crap clipped at both collars of the sweater and I thought, “wow, that’s some serious fakery right there”. It looked ridiculous, her trying to appear like a hapless soccer mom with a hanky up her sleeve. That was for public consumption and all about her; had nothing to do with what was best for her kids.
I’ve completely stopped paying attention to the “gossip” mags and the like when Britney Spears was falling apart. It had crossed the line when it was obvious the woman was heading down a very bad road and watching these magazines and the like celebrate her descent was just obscene.
It’s tasteless and disgusting.
Her kids? Do you think she stopped for one second to think about her kids? If she did, all this publicity would not exist and she would have done it in an adult, not about me attitude. Her kids don’t even enter the picture. It’s all about her.
I really don’t “care” about celebrities any more than they do aout me. I resent having their personal problems rammed down my throat by the media. Having been forced to pay attention, however, it is sometimes amusing to see them collapse after they have imposed themselves on me so much.
I definitely admit to the guilty pleasure that comes from seeing people in an enviable position experiencing the same problems as us who are not filthy rich or in the spotlight. It is certainly not about education for me, although it does make the obvious point that money does not buy happiness. This is especially apparent in the number of times people are marrying these days. I can’t help but think that anyone who marries time and time again, only to end up divorcing and starting over, is obsessed with the thought that marriage is where happiness is. For the wealthy, there are no financial barriers that give the average person pause when contemplating getting hitched, so it seems natural that they would pursue the “perfect wedding” and marriage multiple times until they get it right.
Why is this even in the news? Why is this relevant? Why do people care and why are we wasting time talking about it? And people wonder why nothing ever gets done to fix the worlds state of affairs. It’s because idiots are preoccupied with useless BS such as this.
One thing I remember from my Theater History classes is that the more serious the times are, the more silly the entertainment becomes. Farce became very popular as the Roman Empire fell. Look back at the 70′s and see the popularity of all the disaster movies. People paid to see that their lives weren’t as bad ass those poor people facing an earthquake, or high rise fire, or (insert your favorite Irwin Allen production here).
You wanna know how bad things really are? Keep track of whether there’s more serious and thoughtful entertainment or more escapist fair.
I don’t quite understand how Madonna, A-Rod or Christie have anything to do with my world…unless one of them has a way to bring down gas prices or find me a new job.
And A-Rod? Seriously…the only reason I know his name is because you’ve mentioned your disdain for his salary in the past.
The Germans have a word for it: Schadenfreude, the delight in misfortunes of others. We’re all guilty of it. But, I agree, Christy Brinkley has now gotten on my last nerve.
Isn’t there an Oscar Wilde quote something to the effect that “It is one of the duties of the British upper class to keep the lower classes amused with their outrageous behavior and peccadilloes”? Maybe its just our American celebrities trying to keep up with the British royality.
Who cares about these overpaid,famous for nothing cretins? Stop wasting valuable blogging space on these fools,that’s the job of mainstream of sewage media.
Good point Fred.
Of course, “lower class” in this instance would clearly mean women and gay men. I genuinely don’t know a single hetero male who cares a tiny jot for this sort of pointless nonsense.
Not one.
How loudly can I scream “I DON’T CARE!!!!!!”
Sick and tired of our celebrity-obsessed society.
Go read a book or pull weeds or cook dinner or something–just do something constructive.
glc
She might be the “Uptown Girl” but says a lot for her being in the divorce courts 4 times.
I do have to say Christie is SMOKIN’ HOT for her age. I would definitely like to have her as my next ex-wife.
I like celebrities. They’re a part of our collective family. Way too much is made of the negative side of being interested in them. I felt sad for Brittany during her revolt against mortality and hoped that she would overcome as it seems she has. Besides their piles of money, the only difference between them and us is that everything they do is in the public domain. It’s a very hard way to have to live.
Jim, it’s probably not as hard as being a Chinese Christian, a Tibetan or some poor slave in Darfur. And they do get well paid for it. So I have no sympathy for them.
As for Brittany, J-lo, A-Rod and the rest, I have a family; they’re aren’t members of it. And I don’t know if I “like” any of them or not, because I’ve never met them, don’t know them, and I’m not about to pretend I have some sort of relationship with them, just because I’ve seen their faces plastered all over.
And, really, I don’t see anything to be gained from being interested in them. I try to avoid them as much as I can (not an easy task, since the media seems determined to forcibly thrust them down our collective throats. Gotta agree with the earlier comment about bread and circuses. . . )
considering all the tabloid magazines, TMZ, E!, etc, apparently the lives of the rich and famous is big business. someone’s buying this stuff. is it right? well, why not? It takes a narcissist to become a celeb in the first place so?
Christie Brinkley => http://www.thisiswomen.com/christie-brinkley/