14 DAY TRIAL // Reality television has ushered in a new era in terms of celebrity culture and, above all, the people on whom we bestow this title. Today, we no longer think twice before naming some Z-list we’ll probably not hear of again in a month’s time a “star,” even if, many years ago, it took a lot of talent, hard work and dedication to be honored like this by the public. The problem, Joan Collins says for the Daily Mail, stems from the fact that celebrity has died and has been replaced by the “sub-lebrity.”
Sub-lebrities are today’s celebrities but they, unlike the stars of yore, have little to show for their fame save for themselves and an obvious willingness to turn their personal life into a public circus if need be and ratings go down. They can’t act, sing, dance or be a public person, yet they do a little of everything just to keep their names in the press. They are the Britney Spears, the Gosselins and the Jordans of our society and they have come to represent the end of an era in which being a star actually meant doing something for it.
Famed television actress Joan Collins was never the one to sugarcoat her opinions, so we shouldn’t expect her to do that when speaking of today’s celebrity culture. “Utter nobodies became instant celebrities, often garnering front pages in the tabloids and covers on magazines – and these wannabes demeaned themselves by eating animal intestines or marrying someone the public voted for or seriously injuring themselves attempting to dance. Their instant fame had absolutely nothing to do with dedication to a craft, talent or even hard work. […] Devoid of talent, beauty or charm, in order to stay in the public eye, they have had to rely on self-serving antics. And, of course, every headline-grabbing time, the antics have become more and more bizarre and outrageous,” Collins writes for the British tab.
Should we be looking for culprits, we might start by pointing the finger at reality television, the actress goes on to say. While there, we should also point a finger at ourselves because reality shows have only begun to be more present on our TVs after demand for them increased. As it is now, the culture of sub-lebrity stands well supported by television and the tabloid media, with the silent back-up from audiences still eager to get all the dirt on the Z-listers they will probably forget in a short while. It’s a vicious circle that we can’t seem to break, Collins says. Smack in the middle are the real stars who are also the most affected by the sub-lebrity phenomenon.
“The most depressing consequence of our obsession with ‘sub-lebrities’ is that the real stars – the actors who are attempting to craft a career from talent and long years of training – are being left on the breadline as the airwaves are clogged with reality shows. […] So today’s minor celebrities – lacking any true discernable talent to maintain their fame and desperate for as much attention as possible – need to behave ever more outrageously to garner headlines. Every day the news is full of some starlet or wannabe singer falling down drunk or dressing like a bag lady in expensive rags,” Collins also says in the same piece.