14 DAY TRIAL // Of course, this is just a rhetorical question. Celebrities are not better than us, they just seem to be or have the money to look as if they were. This is my opinion, but that doesn't mean that I hold it for an absolute truth, because I could be proven wrong any time of day.
Anyway, as I was surfing on the Internet today, I found something that really shocked the senses out of me: Mariah Carey has a personal assistant who only gets paid to make sure that her employer's skirt doesn't touch the floor. In other words, she (the assistant, not Mariah) is just like those little girls that get to carry the bride's trail in church, the only difference being that she gets paid a lot of money for it.
Seeing this, it immediately struck me that some of the stars of today impose many demands, that have to be met for them to appear at some event, or even for their own concerts (if they are singers), so absurd that one could easily think they are some sort of deities placed on earth for the sole purpose of being worshiped. By us, naturally.
It's only normal for stars, after they made millions and millions of dollars, to do their best to increase their standards of living and to ask for extravagant things to be supplied to them. But from that to hiring a person to carry the trail of your dress or another one to spray you with a custom made spraying tan made of 24-karat gold dust, like in Mariah's case, is a rather long stretch.
Just to set the record straight, I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve to have the best things that money can buy. It's just that, once the diva demands appear, a certain attitude towards the 'mortals' also surfaces. Miss Carey, for instance, is known for her uptight behavior not only towards her employees, but also towards her fans and the people she collaborates with. Just as an example, if she does a show or an interview, the people in the audience are not allowed to address her if they are not spoken to first.
What, is she made of glass and afraid that she might break if someone says something to her? I just don't get her: no matter how talented she is or how good her vocal skills are, nothing could possibly justify such things. The only thing that misses in this equation is for the 'diva' to ask people not to look at her when she enters a room, in case they might rub off her, I don't know, glamor or spirit or whatever.
And speaking of which, they say that Jennifer Lopez does that. At one point in her career, a couple of years ago, when there was this genuine JLo frenzy, the Latino singer got so conceited and so full of herself that, each time she entered a room, people were supposed to lower their eyes and not look directly or stare (Heaven forbid!) at her.
Just like Mariah, Jen doesn't want to be spoken to unless she poses a question to somebody or wants to start a conversation. Plus, the diva can't breathe the same air as us and for that she has a personal assistant who - a couple of minutes before her 'grand' entrance - has to spray a special fragrance in the room. Rumor has it that the fragrance is gardenia (and not something else!) because, apparently, other smells 'offend' Jennifer. Jeez, let's hope she doesn't choke on it!
And don't think that diva demands are restricted only to divas per se. Famous men also ask for impossible or absurd things, like Leonardo DiCaprio who - when he is on the set of a movie - throws each outfit after a scene and demands to be brought a new one. But the king (or, should I say queen?) of diva demands is incontestably Michael Jackson. The 'Thriller' star is rumored to be one of the most difficult persons to work with, not only because he is very sensitive about his image and face (anyone wonder why?) but also because his demands are so strict and extravagant that people have to face really huge challenges to comply with them.
First of all, Michael Jackson is not to be touched (or spoken to, of course) and, if he agrees to come out of his hiding to do a concert or something, the cost to 'maintain' him is higher than the profit you could make. Let's take as an example his (terrible) performance at the World Music Awards that took place this year, in London. His stay at the posh hotel where he checked in cost the organizers no less than ?75,000 for two nights, as his children and his posse had all to be accommodated on two entire floors.
Plus, it is a known fact that Jacko rarely travels unaccompanied by at least 20 persons, which includes bodyguards, make-up artists, carriers for his luggage, stylists and doctors, so these too have to be taken care for. And come to think that people said he sold Neverland because he was broke. Lie! You can't pay for so much luxury with smiles, that's for sure.
Anyway, there would be many more things to say about celebrities' diva demands and these three that we talked about here are not the only ones famous for making them. But the last thing I would want to do now is to bore you with too much information, so I'll stop here and maybe we'll pick up this topic later. But I will conclude by asking you this: are the stars really better than us if they are granted all those absurd wishes? Or am I the only one that sees diva demands as something entirely ridiculous and embarrassing?
