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 It’s
a mad, mad, mad, mad celebrity world.
The advertising banner on the side of the MTA bus reads:
“ADD SPICE TO YOUR LIFE.”
“Page Six,” the New York Post’s self proclaimed, “premiere
scandal sheet” is adding a 60-page Sunday magazine section.
Gossip is a national obsession. So what else is new?
But it’s now so marginalized, so trivialized, it keeps losing
intensity,
undermining its own power to shock or titillate.
There seems to be no limit to the saturation of trivia.
in glossy magazines, newspapers, television, and
“blog heaven” on the Internet. Cell-phones and I-pods
have been “bugged.”
..
We’re constantly peppered with trifles.
Bottom-of-the barrel items:
What could be more interesting than reading that some star
chefs on television have “gritty fingernails.”
Or that the “worst smell” in New York City is the San Gennaro
Festival early in the morning.
And would you believe that a catfight nearly erupted when two
big-name fashion models arrived at an LA bash wearing identical
high-style shoes.
Or the gossip truth that some celebrity male hairdressers
are actually “straight.”
It was in the l930’s, 40’s, and 50’s, when America’s gossip craze
took root, at a profit.
Commentator Walter Winchell, whose newspaper and radio fans
numbered in the tens of millions, reigned as king of
“dishing the dirt”--deep and dirty.
Dubbing himself “Little Boy Peep”, gossip brought Winchell to
national prominence as he pushed the boundaries as never before,
breaking taboos on digging into private lives. Proponents lovingly
called these “juicy items" “personality journalism.”
WW could make or break careers in movies, on Broadway,
high society, even national politics. He forged national opinion.
Set styles.
I became acquainted with the Winchell factor in 1957 with the
release of the film noir classic. “The Sweet Smell of Success.”
A powerful drama, starring Burt Lancaster, it vilified a
thinly-veiled Winchell, a biting look at the dark side of the fame
game.
Depicting seamy deals that went on between columnists and
press agents.
Typical of writer Clifford Odets’ unforgettable dialogue:
“I love this dirty town”
“My right hand hasn’t seen my left-hand in 30 years,”
In the fifty years since,
The cynicism of “Sweet Smell” has been up-dated, but never really
outdated. Wardrobe and lingo have changed somewhat, and
the power of the players shifted, but the film remains a benchmark
in modern culture.
News substance began to take a back seat to froth in the l980s
as the lines between celebrated fame and notoriety blurred.
The “sleaze beat” began to go legit, becoming one of the mainstays
of mainstream journalism.
Today people, understandably, still accuse the media of turning
over too many rocks,
Yet, eagerly they await their daily portions of anecdote, rumor,
scandal and celebrity meltdowns.
Though as the boys and girls on the gossip beat say these days --
it takes a lot of sizzle to sell the steak.
.........................................................................................................................
Gene Farinet, an award winning veteran newsman, spent much of his long
career at NBC News as a writer and producer working with Frank McGee,
Ed Newman, John Chancellor and Tom Brokaw, covering space, politics
and special projects everywhere in the world.
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