Last week for our final Television and Society class of the year we got the treat of watching the movie documentary, Star Suckers. I thought this was a fantastic film. It was very cleverly written and meticulously researched. I don't think one of us came out of the class without having the "Oh my God" kind of reaction to it.
The film's main focus is the media and how society today is becoming increasingly obsessed with fame and celebrity lifestyles. One of the more shocking parts of the film showed a young 6-year-old boy from Los Angeles who had no other goal in life than to be a superstar. He had obviously been influenced from a very young age by his surroundings and he was pretty well developed for his age. In fact he was almost like a young extremely shrewd businessman as he knew exactly what was expected of him and what he would have to do to gain "success". Anyway, he went through many auditions and sold his image and became really popular and wealthy by doing different work for companies until one show he did that was a flop which resulted in him crying backstage as the production companies now had no interest in him. It was a really sad case because all through the show we had seen different points of his journey and experienced it from the start to probably the end. We saw in the middle the 10 hour car journeys he had to make with his supportive parents to other parts of the country for a five minute audition where he was asked if he was doing his homework on the journey. He replied he wasn't because it was boring and what he was doing was much more important. So we got a good look at how the "celebrity" industry used the image of the boy until he had passed his sell by date and became useless to them and as a result they presumably dropped him like a ton of bricks.
Another aspect of fame that the programme investigated was the cases of Wesley Autrey and John Smeaton. Wesley Autrey was a man who became instantly famous as a result of him rescuing a man who had fallen onto a subway track by jumping on top of him to prevent the train from hitting them. Obviously a very brave man but the film goes on to show how the immense power of the media was what made him so instantly famous.
The same kind of story happened with John Smeaton who, after the terrorist attack at Glasgow Airport, was given a regular column in The Sun and even stood for election as an independent candidate in Glasgow North-East. Using examples like this, Star Suckers shows how people have a strong and natural attraction to fame. Even if we don't realise it or don't particularly want it, we are all inadvertently influenced by celebrities and the media in our daily lives.
Another part of the film investigated newspaper journalism and how they will do almost anything to get a story. And in most cases they have little need for any sort of facts to substantiate their stories. Now you may think reading this that you know this already, of course the Daily Star and the like aren't renowned for their journalistic integrity. But at the same time as a society we still lap the stories up. We have become obsessed by gossip and celebrity lifestyle to the point where it doesn't matter if we know that Jordan hasn't decided to join NASA in a bid to forget Pete, we just feel a natural attraction to it and want to know more.
Furthermore, there is a widely held belief in our society today that the route to fame and success comes through reality television shows. Star Suckers showed that there are actually courses and classes on how to be successful on reality shows such as Big Brother. In other words they actually teach people how to act in a certain controversial way, in order to be as "successful" on this type of show as possible. Another good example of this is how in British society today, a great number of people feel that shows such as Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor are the answer to quick and easy fame. "It can happen to anyone" is the kind of attitude that many people have. And going to the same school as the now world famous Subo did and living 5 minutes up the road from X Factor winner Leon Jackson, I realise that perhaps it can happen to anyone. But at the end of the day you're just selling your soul to the Simon Cowells of this world who will suck all the life out of you for their own profit then discard you when your talent is no longer worth anything to them. Quite a depressing thought, I know, but it's a clever business model nonetheless.
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