So it seems that even with the stimulus bill debates and that crippling recession that, according to a few talk radio hosts, isn’t even a recession, people still manage to find time to gawk at celebrity gossip. In case you haven’t heard (And I’d be surprised, considering how many media networks are obsessing about it), a sound byte was recently leaked onto Youtube, consisting of Christian Bale flipping out on the set of Terminator 4 recently. A light technician wandered onto the set and ruined Bale’s shot, so he lost his temper and began viciously swearing the technician out. Many nasty things were said, and many expletives were used. It sounds like Bale was simply acting like your typical pretentious Hollywood git.
…Until you consider the fact that the guy wandered onto the set multiple times, hence the “fucking amateur” accusation from Bale. That’s only one thing to consider-also consider the fact that it’s a high-demand blockbuster, which means even a little stress for all involved, and that it may have been a rigorous scene. If I had to run across a desert plain for half a mile 20 times in a row with a PVC robot model draped over my back just because someone kept wandering into the shot, I would not only cuss the guy out, I would pick up the nearest sharp object and disembowel him in front of everyone else. Then I would take the footage that would inevitably be filmed and put it on Youtube myself.
Of course, you’re not going to get any of this from tabloids and news channels, because the appointed commentators will be too busy wagging their fingers at Bale for losing his composure and using the word “fuck.” They’re going to take the whole thing out of context and make Bale look like a short-tempered ego-maniac, and they already have. That’s the sad part-I’m willing to bet that if he wasn’t half as famous as he is, he wouldn’t be getting any of this to begin with. This is because if somebody is popular, then people are either holding them in a superhuman high regard, or tearing them to pieces because they fail to meet it. That is the point of the celebrity-an obsession with creating role models to force others to adhere to. The point of paparazzi and tabloids is to keep a constant eye on these role models and make sure they are constantly living their lives the way everybody else wants them to, and to punish them severely for deviating from it-even if the deviation is out of their control.
Because god forbid celebrities try to act like actual human beings… that would just be horrible.
