Letters to the Editor
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Publicly calling someone a 'train wreck' is not 'going to bat' for them
I wonder why the media persist in feeding us these stories and then tautologically accusing us of having a voracious appetite for them. Hello! YOU are the content provider. Leave the Lohan stories alone and your advertising, subscription and community participation rates won't be affected a whit.
It's different for the gossip rags but that's their business - literally. And people like Lohan want and court the attention, both positive and negative. There are far too many stars managing to live private lives for anyone to believe otherwise.
We read what you feed us, and you feed us what presents itself to you as food. It's doesn't bear any more analysis than that.
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Tough crowd
I can't believe the viciousness of the letters here. Wow.
True things: Lindsay Lohan has piles of money and lots of people falling all over themselves to give her whatever she wants. Because she's rich and famous she has access to all kinds of resources that us poor regular folks can only dream of. Even famous people need to take resposibility for their actions. Lots of advantages and still she screws up! My, how she has disappointed the people of America!
Other true things: LL is a beautiful and talented young woman. Not a C grade actress. Pretty good, actually. She hasn't lived a normal, everyday life since she was like, 11? Her parents are clearly unstable, self-serving and parasitic, which provided her something other than a good foundation. She's just barely 21 and has been drinking in clubs with permission and impunity for years. (I thought there were laws against that.)
Those of us who read about celebrities (and I'd guess most of us here are guilty of that) know that stable lives and successful relationships are too often the exception, rather than the rule, when you live life in the limelight. 21 is so young to write someone off. If you're a person of faith, say a prayer for those young people making bad decisions. If you're not, maybe you could try not to add to the vitriol.
Peace.
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As i said
LL is clearly messed up, and needs help. She can't handle fame. She needs to be totally away from cameras for a long time untill she gets her head right.
But Salon and Couric are complete hypocrites. They've been pimping her all along. Even this thread is pimping her for page views to sell ads so Joan Walsh and Traister can pay their bills. The hypocricy is absurd.
Walsh could issue a statement tomorrow: a principled argument to ancel all Hilton, LL, and so on tabloid coverage. so could Couric.
But the won't, because:
"whatever sells"
Is the rule they live by. And if it means pimping screwed up people to a screwed up audience, so be it.
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please, make it stop...
anna nicole smith
lindsay lohan
paris hilton
britney spears
...any other star who destroys himself or herself in front of media due to lack of self-control...
just stop covering them
put them on page 12 instead of page 1
stop making them as important as real news
give the most attention to the coolest people and things
cover the new superconductor
cover the most innovative musical composers
cover the greatest writers and thinkers
cover a technician who invented a neat new thing that is helpful
cover a person who did something good for humanity
cover somebody who is witty and clever and makes people see things in new ways
cover a political subject in an informative manner
but please....
stop covering young, out-of-control women just because they had a nipple slip or herpes medication or a sex tape or a drunken binge
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Are you kidding me?
These responses to a simple call for sympathy are pure acid, simply disgusting. Healthyskeptic and Fellow Entertainment Journalist: You blame *content providers* for Lohan's popularity? Give me a break. As if the tabloids simply jumped off the racks and into the pockets of fine upstanding Americans who are forced, goshdarnit, FORCED to read them. Right. And the big bad Colombian drug cartels are making our kids buy dope.
And you, Healthyskeptic, you say: "Plenty of other more mentally stable stars dealt with fame much better." Yes, of course. But that doesn't disprove the deleterious effects of fame on one's mental health. To be constantly surveilled, questioned, discussed, dissected, and whispered about, to be ridiculed daily, and to be hindered in the simple act of naturally BEING, is to live in a state of paranoid schizophrenia. And to say that SOME people deal with it better isn't really saying a thing. That's like suggesting poverty isn't REALLY a problem, since some people deal with it better.
The resentment of celebrity here is disgusting. So OK. A lot of celebrities are pampered, irresponsible, borderline sociopaths too self-absorbed to function. Agreed. But that doesn't make them subhuman slime. Everyone's been lost and confused at some point in their youth. And everyone's made mistakes. And if you're saying you've never acted out to feel loved, then you, sir or madam, are a liar.
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The word "disease" is misleading...
While I do not discount the power of addiction, I don't think the word "disease" fits. Once you've got cancer, you can't just choose not to have cancer anymore. You *can* choose to lay off the booze and the drugs. Lots of people have. I don't write this in a judgemental, holier-than-thou way, but "disease" as the term is generally understood doesn't quite cut it.
P.S. My heart totally goes out to alcoholics -- they buy a legal product. It's not too difficult to get through life without doing some blow. Christ.
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@Truemoboy
You blame *content providers* for Lohan's popularity? As if the tabloids simply jumped off the racks and into the pockets of fine upstanding Americans who are forced, goshdarnit, FORCED to read them.
Well nobody is forcing to sell the shit either. They rationalize selling shit with the "whatever sells" cop-out.
Doctors can market and sell snake-oil and bogus medical procedures too, if they wanted to. And sadly, many do. But they're not supposed to, and it's a shameful thing to do.
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I believe she probably has two diseases
Addiction, yes. But it seems clear to me that that is but a comorbid condition and its partner is probably bipolar disorder. For example, just read her Altman letter:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-11-21-lindsay-statement_x.htm
I believe she's a more intelligent woman than this, this is in fact classically manic communication.
Unfortunately, there is currently less stigma associated with being an addict than with being mentally ill (see; Robert Downey Jr.). My guess is that she does in fact suffer from both conditions, and until they are both addressed, she won't stay well.