Twisty: Wealth, Celebrities and the Cult of Self-Celebration

June 16, 2003

Wealth, Celebrities and the Cult of Self-Celebration

As a communication scholar, it is always helpful to look at popular culture to take the pulse of generations, communities and nations. What captures our collective attention, what we buy and what we watch tells a lot about who we are and what we value. I suppose this is why the glut of “wealth celebration” shows now cluttering our cable systems is so disturbing to me.

I suppose it was the E! Channel’s show,It’s Good to Be, that officially sent me over the edge. Each week this show focuses on a different well-known celebrity or celebrity couple and his/her/their extravagant spending habits. In the most recent episode devoted to Ben Affleck, the show calculated – to the dollar – the amount of bling (That’s “money” to all your non-Mtv watchers) he has spent on homes, cars and gifts. In my heart of hearts, I’m hoping Ben is sitting on his leather couch, in his fancy state-of-the-art home watching this in horror thinking how absolutely tacky it is for E! to dissect his spending habits and share them with the world. However, there is an equally good chance that he is tickled with glee that E! has given him a way to shamelessly show off his pricey goodies.

This idea of ogling rich people’s goods is not new to television. Back in the 80s, my mother and I used to watch the granddaddy of all wealth celebration shows – Robin Leech’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” We would watch beautiful people, eating sushi (then, so hip!) and sipping champagne on their yachts. The whole show had a delicious air of exclusivity. You would always here the maitre d’ of some ridiculously fancy restaurant whisper to the camera, “We don’t usually let cameras in here, but, well…just this once.” However, what I loved about the show is that the folks on there never took themselves too seriously. As much as these folks loved the “champagne and caviar” lifestyle, many guests – and often the host – were quick to point out that it was all a tad excessive.

Sadly this is not the case anymore.

Now, celebrities are chomping at the bit to show off their homes and rides. On television staples like Mtv’s Cribs and BET’s How I’m Livin’, self-celebrating celebrities give television viewers an all-access tour of their digs. They painstakingly and enthusiastically point out subzero refrigerators, gold-plated fixtures and other fabulous examples of their glorious excess. However, it’s not the goodies that astound me. Rather, it’s their overwhelming sense of entitlement. How is it that some one-hit-wonder can, without a shred of irony, gush about his/her amazing achievements while swigging “Cristal” from the bottle and showing off an impressive collection of antique Rolls Royces?

At first I thought my contempt was fueled by envy. (I don’t want a ton of fancy swag! However, I would kill to get a PhD without worrying about keeping my 9-5 gig.) Then, I thought – for a fleeting moment – that I was sticking up for those less fortunate. (There are people who can’t afford to feed their kids and these folks are buying platinum toothbrushes?) In the end, though, I think I am just ashamed for these people.

It’s sad to see that – more than ever – we are judging others not by who they are, but by what they own. In today’s society, when social contact is becoming more and more rare and time is at a premium, we continue to invest precious energy in this crap.

These are very sad times indeed.

04:02 PM in Society & Culture | Permalink

Comments

To the Writer:
My name is Patrick and am a High School student.
I am doing a report and presentation on extravagant spending of celebrities inperticular. I agree with your comments, and wish you would send me more of your opinion.
Thank you.

Patrick-

P.S FYI The show "It's good to be" is actually called "The fabulous life of" and is played by VH1 not E. Thought you might want to correct that to make your page more credible.

Posted by: Patrick | October 28, 2003 at 02:24 PM