Chris Brown vs Rhianna

I watched the Grammy Awards for the first time in years a couple of nights ago and I planned on writing a post on all of the reasons I thought they were horrible. Yesterday morning, as I drove in to work I heard that Chris Brown may have gotten in to a fight with his girlfriend Rhianna prior to the show and their planned performance slot was filled in last minute by Justin Timberlake with Al Green. Late in the day yesterday I got a a phone call from a reporter from Macleans asking me to comment on the Chris Brown incident.

The call from Macleans was the second that I had received in as many work days. Someone called on Friday to ask me to contribute to an article suggesting to BNL's Steven Page how to repair his image. I refused that request outright but somehow felt that commenting on Chris Brown was either not my place or totally necessary. After some hemming and hawing I commented.

I start with the fact that I don't really know the facts. I don't read celebrity magazines or gossip columns in newspapers so I don't really find these kinds of stories terribly interesting. But, of course, presuming for a moment that they did get in to a physical fight, what bothers me is how this type of coverage titillates the public and leads to further coverage of downtrodden celebs.

My eldest step-son is a devotee to the show Celebrity Rehab. When we asked him why he watched the show he said because it was educational and shows you the effects of drugs and alcohol. That's a reasonable explanation for watching the first episode but not the rest of the season.

The problems that celebrities have are the same the rest of the world has but they have to live these problems out in public. What people forget is that celebs are people too. Or, maybe they don't forget that. Maybe they like to hold these people up and then revel in the fall from grace. Maybe seeing celeb's mugshots makes the general public feel better about themselves. They laugh, take about them at the water cooler and Google to their hearts content waiting for the next police report in the entertainment section.

The Macleans reporter asked me if I thought that Chris Brown could resuscitate his career after an incident like this. I qualified my answer by saying that, as far as I know, he hasn't yet been charged with anything. Then I told her that I honestly believe that at the end of the day musical artists are judged on the quality of their music not on how they live their lives, good or bad. If Chris Brown makes a great record it will sell and he will be popular. If he makes a bad record no one will care but they'll say Sunday night's incident had a negative impact on his career. If Michael Jackson makes a great album, you can't tell me that it wouldn't sell shit loads.

The reporter asked me for an example to illustrate my point. Though I knew it to be true I couldn't really think past Puff daddy and the gun charges. Maybe that wasn't the best example. And then it hit me. Though it's not music related it is an entertainment story that dominated the front pages and cooler talk for ages. basketball star Kobe Bryant is still the most popular player in the game despite the fact that he cheated on his wife and was accused of assault. But he continues to play the game at the highest levels and people admire him for that.

Celebrities are not looking to be held up as role models but they are. Yes, they have a certain responsibility to make sure that hey don't tarnish their reputations with ridiculous actions. But we all have the same responsibility. We just don't covered in the press.

Read Macleans article here: http://blog.macleans.ca/2009/02/10/how-do-you-spin-this/