Creative Crap

Celebrity Perception is an idea I came up with for a TV show (or a book for an author with access to many celebrities) after reading articles and comments about which celebrities everyone hates working with, or were bad tippers, known divas, or just plain assholes.

How many times have you heard that Jennifer Lopez makes impossible demands, Katherine Heigl is extremely difficult to work with, Bill Cosby is an awful tipper, and Christian Bale is a douche bag? Is it the known transgressions that make it easier to believe the others?

We have a recording of Christian Bale’s bombastic outburst, but other than those present to witness the entire event, we also don’t know all the details of the situation either. The question is, do we need the details to have an accurate view of who he is as a person?

I think most people have a perception of what kind of person Christian Bale is based on that event. The problem with his public perception is people still think he reacted like a jack ass even when they take into consideration the other side of the story.

There’s certain things you can piece together from witnessing behavioral nuances that an individual won’t often realize it’s a tell. You can get a glimpse of someone’s character from the simplest things like courtesy to strangers (holding a door or not) or the way a person treats a waiter or waitress.

Ok, so Christian Bale’s public perception might not be very debatable, but what about the other claims that are basically he said she said rumors? Does it carry weight when you hear about multiple infractions by the same celebrity, regardless of the source of the information? Could we be wrong about any of them?

Could Mike Myers have been stressed out from dealing with a long string of incompetent lackeys after his cat got hit by a car, which was the same day he found out he was being audited by the IRS, and that’s why he has been summed up as moody and temperamental? Probably not, but you get the idea.

I’m not sure you could ever get the truth though. Those who know and like the person would naturally defend. Those who feel slighted by the person will criticize. Without knowing the character and back story of each respondent, we’ll never really know if many of these rumors are true or not.

It’s not like the celebrity would ever confess to being a horror show either. Maybe there’s a perfectly good reason Jennifer Lopez concert rider and hotel demands were so comprehensive and outrageous, though I can’t seem to think of one. Can you?

Chalk this one up to a decent concept that probably isn’t worth pursuing in the television realm. Although, it still might work as a book or website from the fans perspective. Poll a number of people for their thoughts on each celebrity and publish a celebrity perception book/site so they can really see what the prevailing public opinion is on them at the moment.

Dear celebrity publicists. You might want to jump on this idea yourself so you can skew the results in your clients favor. Just remember to keep it believable. I don’t care how many orphanages Bill Cosby visits now. There’s no saving that guy.