FAN-fluential?
Would you trust your favorite actor or actress to decide foreign policies?
I once heard a witty guest on Meet The Press (or was it the O'Reilly Factor?) state:
'Politicians are just ugly rock stars...'. I totally got the fan and fortune reference, but in my heart I knew...I would not want ---- ---- (name withheld to protect my crush) deciding whether we engage North Korea or not. He seems very intelligent...but a bit too...passionate...
Recently while I was getting rid of an old movie poster for "Hackers" (1995), I silently lauded Angelina Jolie for her truly realistic maturation, while keeping her Self in perspective and a strange thought surfaced. Have her good works influenced anyone but Brad Pitt (truly) and bandwagon types (superficially) to act and think more globally? Then I recalled the year after 9-11 when no one was in the 'entertain-me!' mood, and so many stars started entertaining us with their seemingly out-of-nowhere causes de jour. Actors became the faces of all sorts of special interests groups, organizations and causes. Some Media took delight in pointing out financial incentives and overt ignorance of the stars; or the blatant neophyllic passion of several stars ("Are they bored or just attention-seeking?" read one article). I was hoping in my heart it meant a change (if only to prove my ex-hippie, baby-boomer relatives wrong); unfortunately my hope failed, the interests of a few have completely petered out.
Studies have shown the level of creativity required to act can often be conjunctive to above-average intelligence [that's on the level of "Household Saints"(1993) not "Crossroads"(2002)]; so why aren't more of these highly-intelligent people even more influential socio-politically? I am learning that middle-of-the-road sincerity is induced by the desire to remain popular- not influential. I laugh when they try to sell me insurance or hold hands with political candidates during elections, because no matter how familiar the face or the roles, I don't know the thoughts or feelings because I don't know THEM. Maybe the same reasons I never fell prey to peer pressure or do well in focus groups are the same as the reason I only take people like Angelina Jolie, Audrey Hepburn, Josephine Baker and Sally Struthers seriously.
I do not mean to belittle anyone's heart-felt attitudes...I am simply above the influence.
I once heard a witty guest on Meet The Press (or was it the O'Reilly Factor?) state:
'Politicians are just ugly rock stars...'. I totally got the fan and fortune reference, but in my heart I knew...I would not want ---- ---- (name withheld to protect my crush) deciding whether we engage North Korea or not. He seems very intelligent...but a bit too...passionate...
Recently while I was getting rid of an old movie poster for "Hackers" (1995), I silently lauded Angelina Jolie for her truly realistic maturation, while keeping her Self in perspective and a strange thought surfaced. Have her good works influenced anyone but Brad Pitt (truly) and bandwagon types (superficially) to act and think more globally? Then I recalled the year after 9-11 when no one was in the 'entertain-me!' mood, and so many stars started entertaining us with their seemingly out-of-nowhere causes de jour. Actors became the faces of all sorts of special interests groups, organizations and causes. Some Media took delight in pointing out financial incentives and overt ignorance of the stars; or the blatant neophyllic passion of several stars ("Are they bored or just attention-seeking?" read one article). I was hoping in my heart it meant a change (if only to prove my ex-hippie, baby-boomer relatives wrong); unfortunately my hope failed, the interests of a few have completely petered out.
Studies have shown the level of creativity required to act can often be conjunctive to above-average intelligence [that's on the level of "Household Saints"(1993) not "Crossroads"(2002)]; so why aren't more of these highly-intelligent people even more influential socio-politically? I am learning that middle-of-the-road sincerity is induced by the desire to remain popular- not influential. I laugh when they try to sell me insurance or hold hands with political candidates during elections, because no matter how familiar the face or the roles, I don't know the thoughts or feelings because I don't know THEM. Maybe the same reasons I never fell prey to peer pressure or do well in focus groups are the same as the reason I only take people like Angelina Jolie, Audrey Hepburn, Josephine Baker and Sally Struthers seriously.
I do not mean to belittle anyone's heart-felt attitudes...I am simply above the influence.
posted by ScreenGoddessComplex at 2:17 PM
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