Farrah Fawcett’s Entertaining Death
BEEP! WE interrupt this publication to bring you news from CCN (Celebrity Cancer News). Farrah Fawcett has cancer, and stars in Farrah’s Story, the story of a woman’s battle with cancer.
The Daily Mail has pictures:
Farrah Fawcett pictured in her hospital bed: Heart-rending documentary shows early stages of Angel’s cancer battle.
Anyone seeking to escape news of death and destruction across the world, of war and recession, can study pictures of a dying celebrity. Celebrity used to offer escape; now everything has a celebrity endorsement, from swine flu to cancer.
But the media looks to its audience for a guide to where it should go. And the readers fill the comments sections with message as if they are communicating with the dying celebrity directly. And it matters not what the article says, so long as there is space to join the latest death club and emote in public.
The dying celebrity is no longer an addendum to the evening news, but a news story to be narrated and sentimentalised.
Yes, grieving can be healthy. It is. And only an nutcase would not feel sympathy with the ill. But the language smacks of mawishness and a mourning becomes sickly. We have mourning sickness.
The images show her journey over the last 18 months of a battle against what has become terminal cancer. She was happy to film the moving footage of her lying in her hospital bed and dressed in a hospital gown as she undergoes treatment.
Indeed, her journey. Celebrities are for ever taking journeys. Whereas the country’s few remaining non-celebs live their lives or get on with it – or just die – the famous undertake a journey in the manner of an Odysseus, albeit with hair extensions, a bottle tans and a duet with the Sirens.
Says the Mail:
Her condition has now deteriorated so badly that she is bed-ridden and has lost all her hair.
Show me the pictures. And gather the family:
Troubled son Redmond has been on remand in a California prison since early April awaiting trial for possession of narcotics. Two weeks ago, Redmond was given permission to leave jail for three hours to visit his ailing mother – but didn’t tell her of his imprisonment.
Says the father and the husband, Ryan O’Neal:
“I don’t think his mother is going to be there for him when he gets out. Her doctor wrote to the judge and said, ‘If he doesn’t get a chance to see her now he may not get a chance to see her”. And the judge was kind and allowed him a three-hour visit.”
We’re not learning anything. This is no last taboo being exposed. We are watching. Watching. Watching.
Ther TV tribute to the dead star is not a clip of their finest moment, but footage of their death.
We are being entertained by death – which has no place among the living….
Posted: 15th, May 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (9) | TrackBack | Permalink
