Hollywood cesspool no place for role models

For decades, the culture of Hollywood has always been of somewhat questionable quality and character, going back even as far as its “Golden Age” of motion picture making in the nineteen thirties and forties.
To preface my narrative, I use the term “Hollywood” loosely to represent the entertainment industry and its popular culture in general: From motion picture film to television to music.
This said, something that has bothered me for years is why the American public insists on idolizing Hollywood in spite of its insipid popular culture and degenerate subcultures.
No matter how many times a celebrity like actor Charlie Sheen unapologetically spits in the face of all that is decent and right with mainstream America and her establishment of traditional values, Hollywood remains fixed on a pedestal of glamour to which many Americans still aspire.
No matter how low the public’s perception of entertainers may reach with every incident of misconduct, Americans are forgiving to a fault just because these cultural degenerates are glamorous, glorious, rich and famous “pretty people.” They are awarded the special treatment simply by virtue of who they are; not what they are.
No matter how debased the personal lives of celebrities become and permeate through their professional and public lives, Americans still idolize and want to be like them.
Americans seem all too willing to tolerate what amounts to a hall pass or a slap on the wrist when a celebrity breaks the law or commits a crime. They are rarely sentenced to the maximum penalty, simply because they are “pretty people” and we don’t want to tarnish the convoluted, ideal image of them that we have somehow deluded ourselves into creating in our minds. As such, these people walk where the average Joe Six Pack or Jane Q. Public would, in all likelihood, get the book thrown at them.
Consider actress Lindsay Lohan for example. How many times has she violated her terms of probation? How many times has she spit on mandates of the justice system by routinely violating court orders?
A bench warrant was sworn out for her arrest in May 2010 after she failed to appear for a review hearing following multiple DUI arrests. However, Lohan’s personal representatives posted her bail, so the judge rescinded the warrant. Money talks, in other words.
Furthermore, she was sentenced in July 2010 to 90 days in jail for her offenses, but she only ended up serving just 14 days due to “overcrowding” issues with non-violent offenders. Uh-huh. Sure. More than likely, Lohan was the recipient of the same special treatment that Paris Hilton received in 2007 after her arrest for a reckless driving DUI. Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail, but she only served half of that before being released.
Last year, Hilton was arrested in Las Vegas for felony possession of cocaine. But, she accepted a plea deal from the district attorney’s office and avoided any jail time.
Back to Lohan, her latest misconduct involves a charge of felony grand theft. She is accused of stealing a $2,500 necklace from a jewelry store. She apparently has been offered a plea deal to avoid being sentenced to prison.
Despite her multiple probation violations, and the court’s revocation of her probation, Lohan has managed to avoid any serious consequences by posting bail.
What all of this tells me is that the money of a filthy rich celebrity routinely tips the scales of justice.
Sheen is no exception to this notion, either.
Despite being convicted of assault on his girlfriend in 1996, he walked with a probation sentence. He violated his probation for cocaine related charges in 1998.
On Christmas Day 2009 Sheen was arrested on another domestic violence charge; this time for assaulting his wife, holding a knife to her throat and threatening to kill her. He accepted a plea deal eight months later that dropped the more serious felony charges and he pled guilty to misdemeanor assault instead. His sentence: 30 days in rehab and 30 days probation.
In October 2010, Sheen was arrested for destruction of property to his room at New York’s Plaza Hotel following a drinking and drug binge.
And Charlie Sheen has the nerve to say to America that he is a “rock star from Mars” who deserves to be appreciated, and that he is worth a $3 million raise per television episode? I beg to differ.
Sheen, Hilton, Lohan et al all have one thing in common: They are spoiled, screwed up degenerates who have repeatedly violated the public trust. And yet, we continue to worship and admire them after they have all but spat in our faces. Our justice system remains tilted in their favor by virtue of their celebrity and their money.
When will Americans wake up from dreamland and realize that little good is produced in Hollywood except a cheap thrill? If we want people to look up to, perhaps we ought to start looking locally in our own communities for heroes and heroines who routinely give of themselves and not for themselves. Sure, many of these folks aren’t the “pretty people” we see on television or the big screen; but real beauty runs much deeper than the skin.
Real heroes and heroines aren’t glamorous. They aren’t materially wealthy. They don’t flash us million-dollar smiles and show off a million bucks worth of pearls. They don’t give us interviews, soundbites, or other kinds of titillating stimulation. Rather, they are real people with real lives doing real things that make a real, positive difference in the small part of the world that they live.
But average people aren’t the ones who get the deserved attention; the pretty people of Hollywood are.
And for what? Just for looking pretty?
If human beings were eggs, most of the Hollywood pretty people would look perfect on the outside, but be rotten to the core. Heroes ought to be determined by what is on the inside. If the American public looked more often at what lurks beneath the flawless skin and bodies of many celebrities, there might be a different and more accurate perception of entertainers rather than the false and flattering images that are usually conjured up.
We fought a revolution more than two centuries ago against royalty, nobility and a privileged birthright. But since then, America has been intent on establishing a new culture of royalty and nobility: That of the celebrity.
Celebrities receive special treatment and attention that the average American does not enjoy simply by virtue of who and what they are. They are pop stars—singers, entertainers, movie and television actors/actresses, media personalities, professional athletes and so on—and because of what they are, America awards them a certain amount of undue and unearned respect not for what they’ve done, but rather for their celebrity and for who they are.
I am sickened to think the American nation that the founding generation struggled so hard and sacrificed so much to establish—one based on individual merit, rather than birthright—is being replaced by a social and political oligarchy.
I fear society has resorted to placing greater value on the powerful and influential few, rather than on the hardworking majority that is sweating and bleeding to preserve communities and/or to make them better places in which to live.
If we as Americans are willing to tolerate the degeneracy of their celebrity social order—and continue giving them the royal treatment in spite of their disdain for us—then we don’t deserve a country that places greater value on deed than position.
The love affair with celebrity must end before America’s beau ditches her in the gutter.