Hard News: CELEBRITY DRUG SHOCK NEWS! AGAIN.
36 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 Newer→ Last
-
I don't see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission. I've been staying right away from coverage of all this.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
I don’t see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission.
I wasn't saying it was good or right.
-
I'm more with Bill Hicks on this issue,but could be there wednite !
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I don't see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission.
That's not what Russell was saying. But hell, if a washed-up pop star with a drug problem (and allegedly leaving her estate owing millions of dollars in advances) could find a way to peg out more calculated to send the media panty-sniffers into a frenzy, I can't imagine it.
-
waiting to exhale...
Whitney Houston's death was sad, if not unpredictable or unexpected, but I fail to see how it justified the entire front page of The Press World Section and at least another page since...
It is as if the media having, undoubtedly, added to the pressures in her unravelling life have gone into overkill for their last feeding frenzy...
Not pretty, not inspiring, just lamentable all round... -
I can't find the link again, but there was a delightfully pompous piece in The Age decrying how awful people are on the internet. Maybe there's a point there, but when the Australian media seem obsessed with concern trolling drunken football players and bed-hopping soap actors? (Surprise! adolescents with too much money, no discernible boundaries and bugger all adult supervision may not act very well while in a state of self-induced chemical poisoning.. Sticking a camera up their twats probably not very helpful.)
Right message, perhaps, but not really the most credible of pulpits.
-
Simon Grigg, in reply to
I was in a house (not mine) where CNN was playing in the background. They ran wall to wall Whitney for the best part of three hours (at which time our host turned the TV off).
After Piers Morgan had finished equating Whitney, more or less, with The Beatles, Spector, Holland-Dozier-Holland and Sinatra, they seemed able to find a steady stream of talking heads to waffle endlessly supporting this equation, pausing only to say how much they loved her.
None of whom, of course, had been available to Whitney the night before when she was drowning in her bath or in the years before.
The death of a junkie is always tragic but the inevitable rush to bathe in and bleed the passing by the media when said junkie is famous (and in this case was blessed with a fabulous voice) always accentuates the awfulness of such human waste.
But they always do, and Sony's now infamous and 'accidental' (read: they got caught - they did the same with Jacko but got away with it) raising of the price of her music the day after, merely underlines the true value the media corporations intend to extract from her after her death.
-
One of the smartest investigations of the celebrity phenomenon is Graeme Turner's Understanding Celebrity (Sage, 2004). Graeme, who is at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the Univ of Queensland, is updating his book currently as Understanding Celebrity Revisited
-
Ross Bell, in reply to
Hi Craig - not sure if you're planning on it, but it would be great to see you at the taping. I've been meaning to make contact with you for a while. I'll introduce you to Chris too - he's a nice guy.... for an alcoholic.
-
Hebe,
Sometimes, people are just getting high and having fun; what exactly are you treating there?
A fine way to pass the time. Treatment is only needed when it turns from getting high and having fun to getting high to be able to do everyday life. Stopping is not the core; but staying stopped is, and having the ability to choose that option depends on whether a person's biochemistry allows them to do so. I'll watch the Kennedy with interest.
-
Hebe, in reply to
None of whom, of course, had been available to Whitney the night before when she was drowning in her bath or in the years before.
Yes. Rancid people.
-
I read a piece linked on my fb wall today (searching …) available here that mentioned JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President. Had not previously heard that.
-
Hebe, in reply to
LSD -- was he in with the Tim Leary lot?
-
Rich of Observationz, in reply to
That said LSD. Ecstasy didn't become widely used until the 80's.
-
Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
That said LSD.
So it did.
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
what a long strange trip...
LSD – was he in with the Tim Leary lot?
well he was 'in' with Mary Pinchot/Meyer who was in with all sorts of people including the Kennedys, CIA head honchos, and Leary amongst others. she was assassinated in Washington in 1964.
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I’ll introduce you to Chris too – he’s a nice guy…. for an alcoholic.
I'm faintly surprised any member of the Kennedy family is at all functional. I had enough of a time getting sober and staying there, without being part of an extended family that's been soaking in the tabloid goo for the better part of eight decades. Where does your head end up when it seems every private unhappiness and act of squalour in the clan eventually ends up being dished up for public consumption?
I've read a lot more about his Uncle John's *cough* not exactly chivalrous conduct with women not his wife than the domestic policy of his Administration. YMMV, but that strikes me as a sad and unhealthy state of affairs.
-
Hebe, in reply to
I read somewhere, probably a Vanity Fair or similar, that the Kennedys could muster up a football team each of recoveries and non-recoveries at family gatherings.
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
And Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem. Having Christopher Hitchens on the masthead was pretty impressive window-dressing for a magazine whose stock in trade is wallowing in human misery and degradation while pretending to be awfully concerned about it all. Feh… For all his sins, at least Rupert Murdoch is an upfront scumbag. If shit sells he'll cheerfully and shamelessly cover the Earth in booby-shaped septic tanks.
-
Whitney Spears died? damn, I loved that show.
Hopefully not too tangentially..
This article mentions a movement to ban smoking outside bars. 'One drug town' fundamentalism does little to reflect the comparative harmfulness of alcohol. Less punters in or around the bars is economically regressive, it doesn't adequately reflect the predilections of our society and it undermines the fostering of inclusive integrated community. Safety is in numbers. Legislators deny and marginalize social demographics instead of prioritizing the reintegration of users and restoration of social fabric.
When legislators unreasonably oppose widespread social customs, a community is unrepresented and any education administered at the behest of legislators is skeptically regarded as lacking legitimacy by portions of society with the greatest needs.
As citizens plonked at the feet of the God, marginalized for predilections, our identity remains uncertain, we are tempered to entreat because there is no response when we politely ask - "Do you mind if I smoke here?"
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
nd Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem. Having Christopher Hitchens on the masthead was pretty impressive window-dressing for a magazine whose stock in trade is wallowing in human misery and degradation while pretending to be awfully concerned about it all.
Huh? Really? Vanity Fair? Are you quite sure about that? Because that description doesn’t make any sense to at all to me.
-
Didn't the msm recently run wall-to-wall coverage when Steve Jobs tragically succumbed to his cancer?
Houston died at 48 and Jobs at 56. Way too young. Perhaps this is what creates the huge interest which in turn drives the coverage.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
I read a piece linked on my fb wall today (searching …) available here that mentioned JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President. Had not previously heard that.
It appears to be the case. Leary alluded to it more than once.
But JFK pretty much rattled when he walked -- painkillers (for his wartime back injury), sedatives, amphetamines, etc. All properly prescribed, naturally.
-
Hebe, in reply to
And Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem.
You've lost me. Vanity fair is variable in the "quality" of its subjects -- but it's always a well-written and slick piece of work. Rupe is the problem; or perhaps its the people who buy his products that are the problem.
-
Joe Wylie, in reply to
JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President
Do you have a theory about who killed Kennedy?
No.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.