Jean Simmons’ Death Is A ‘Demure’ Media Cut And Paste Job
JEAN Simmons has died. Her amazing career in pictures is here. Madame Arcarti looks at the pap media treatment of a once great actress. This is what happens when all the hacks who grew up watching you are dead:
Demure. It’s the adjective du jour. That’s because Jean – “thought she was dead already” – Simmons has just died. If you write “Jean Simmons demure” into the Google search box you get 4,210 results (as I write). All those cut ‘n’ paste jobs drag-netting “demure” into the catch as thousands of hacks worldwide try to encapsulate the long celebrated life of someone scarcely on their radar. Mention Spartacus, the mental light bulbs flash.
Thanks to Google and other search engines Jean Simmons gets confused with Gene Simmons, the KISS vocalist and bassist, who according to the search has never abused alcohol while poor old Jean did – because she became “depressed by the lack of quality parts”, a phrase that recurs word for word in thousands of obits. Lest we forget, Jean was a “British beauty” – a phrase useful in over 30,000 lifts.
Jean Simmons “starred in films with legendary actors Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando…”: this xeroxed formulation pops up on the BBC, USA Today, India Times, Metro Radio and hundreds of other places. She “sang with Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls” – another 24,000+ cut ‘n’ pastes.
She was, after all, the “Guys and Dolls actress”. Etc.
Pictures are here
– MA
Posted: 23rd, January 2010 | In: Celebrities Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
