I have been obsessed with celebrity gossip for as long as I can remember and there are few things more titillating than a celebrity feud or tense publicity junket.
My current fascination is the promo (both official and unofficial) surrounding the movie ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. Perhaps initially garnering attention for being the breeding ground for Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde’s new relationship, alongside Shia LaBeouf’s apparent firing from Styles’ subsequent role.
Then came an Olivia Wilde cover story interview with Variety magazine (the ‘She’s So Golden’ tagline makes me cringe even thinking about it). Wilde raved about Pugh in the interview, despite Pugh not really returning the favour in her Harper’s Bazaar profile. All this one-sided praise suddenly got interesting and one couldn’t help but wonder if there was some animosity behind the scenes. My antennas were now fully pricked up.
Then Shia LaBeouf decided it was his turn and emailed Variety to correct Wilde’s claims that he was fired from the leading role and had in fact left due to difficulties arranging rehearsal time. Alongside this he forwarded a video where Wilde tells him she’s “not ready to give up on this yet”. She also alludes to tension between Pugh and LeBeouf, saying “I think this might be a bit of a wake up call for Miss Flo” (I’m sorry but this line just makes me think of periods).
Overall, I really don’t think there are any winners in this situation (although I am living for Pugh’s moral high-ground silence). It’s really just people trying to one-up each other to save face and while entertaining, it can get stale pretty quickly.
But this entire debacle got me thinking. While I was (and still kind of am) hooked on the rumours surrounding this movie, I almost immediately thought “I bet this is just some PR drama drummed up to get the movie some attention”. And as someone who grew up in the early 2000s, a haven for celebrity dramas, that made me a bit sad.
Have we got to a point where we can’t believe that some legitimate drama can’t happen between celebrities, without any ulterior motive? I’m not saying every drama of yesteryear had no PR undertones to them, but they always felt a bit more organic. Now, with the advent of social media, it’s all too easy for celebrities to feed the rumour mill and give their two cents on the dramas, straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak. The silent allure of celebrities is pretty much non-existent now.
I guess what I’m really wondering is, has the world become so curated that nothing is real anymore? Nothing happens just for the sake of it. Social media was touted as a way for people, and especially celebrities, to show off their personalities and become more relatable. Yet, it doesn’t really feel that way?
If I see a celebrity posting ‘candid’ photos of themselves with belly rolls, food stuffed in their mouth or pulling a silly face , I immediately think “this is just PR to get people to like them more”. Even when I see just a regular person post on social media some big confessional or personal post about something that impacts them, it just makes me think they’re doing it for some validation and sympathy. Call me a cold hearted cynical bitch all you want, but I do believe there’s a lot of truth to my thoughts.
Recently Love Island’s Luca Bish asked co-star Gemma Owen to be his girlfriend. Although, the balloon letters spelling it out didn’t include a question mark so maybe he was just telling her she was now his other half - it would be quite on brand for him. The question-popping exceeded most marriage proposals, complete with a videographer, some Cartier jewellery and an elaborate set up. More than anything it just made me sad. Not for the fact I wasn’t the one being ‘proposed’ to, but just that it all seemed so fake. Whatever happened to just mutually agreeing to be each other’s partners privately? This display was created purely for social media and was nothing more than a PR hack.
While I understand that celebrity culture can have a very dark side, especially for the celebs on the other side, growing up there was always a frivolity to it for me. I’m not saying it’s right and I’m not saying it’s wrong. But it now feels like the fun has been sucked out of it, and you can’t blindly believe even for a second that some highly entertaining cat fight in Hollywood is real. Throw in the creation of social media, things feel even less real. All of this has me wondering if anything in this world, or what people put out into it, is authentic anymore? Because right now it really doesn’t like that.
And that’s pitiful, sad and worrying all balled up into one, darling.