Are we enabling celebrities?

Are we enabling celebrities?  

Jane Miller, April 12, 2013


Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber have been in the news lately.  The reporting has been negative for good reason.  They are both adults, but their behavior has hardly been that of one. 

Lindsay's exploits have been legendary.  She has been in and out of court, in and out of rehab, and yet, she is still in the public eye.  She keeps getting attention.  Negative attention is still attention and in the case of misbehaving celebrities feeds their money machine.

Julie Chen stated recently that they would no longer be discussing Lindsay on "The Talk."  I cheered.  She gets it. When small children misbehave, they are often doing it to get attention.  In a celebrity's case, it holds true as well.  When you reward the child or celebrity with negative attention, you are giving then what they want.

Lindsay would never have survived in old Hollywood.  Public opinion would have killed her career.  The studios might have covered for her, but eventually, it would have gotten out and her life in the celebrity fast lane would have been over.  Unfortunately, the public now appears to be insatiable when it comes to needing to know every aspect of a celebrity's life.  This feeds the gossip rags, the paparazzi, newspapers, television etc. It is big business. So even though Lindsay is in the middle of a career melt down, she is still making money for a whole lot of people. It is a never ending money-go-round.

So what is the solution? I believe it has to come from us. Lindsay won't hold herself accountable until we do.  The British have an excellent expression.  When they ignore someone they say they are sending them "to Coventry."  I think that is what we need to do.  We need to stop enabling and start ignoring.