CHRISTINA Grimmie
There’s a disturbing trend on the entertainment scene that should immediately end: It began earlier this month with the death of “The Voice” finalist Christina Grimmie, a rising young star of the music world who was gunned down [on June 10] at a meet-and-greet session with some fans.
Then, just on June 16, another “The Voice” (Mexico) discovery, Alejandro Fuentes, was similarly shot, and cops are investigating if the first incident helped trigger off the other.
On the “wacko assassination” scene, it’s been observed that the demented urge to inflict harm on entertainers tends to “infect” others and escalate when the initial warped perpetrator is able to achieve his longed-for “15 seconds of infamy.”
The fact that both victims were associated with a popular singing tilt only serves to increase the fear that must now be felt by other upcoming show biz starlets and stars.
All the more reason, then, for industry leaders to work in coordination with law enforcement officers to nip this tragic trend in the bud, before it further degenerates into a horrific “open season” for wackos who want to achieve extreme notoriety, and end up all over the media and international consciousness.
Most people admire gifted musical discoveries, but a few warped individuals with all sorts of psychological and psychiatric axes to grind go the opposite way.
They resent the fame and fortune that these young comers enjoy, often in stark contrast to the perpetrators’ own insignificant, deprived and dim and dark existence.
So, they “empower” themselves with readily available firearms and “level the playing field” by gunning down the best and the brightest.
ALEJANDRO Fuentes
How to stop them? Performers should beef up their security, access to weapons should be restricted, and potentially dangerous wackos should be pinpointed before they act on their worst impulses.
In addition, media organizations should guard against unintentionally stoking the flames of hate and longed-for retribution and infamy by not “building up” the killers in their reports, negative though they may be, until they become cult figures, ripe and rife for sordid imitation.
The fact that heretofore unknown and unseen individuals with violent tendencies are suddenly “breaking news” sensations is another cautionary factor that should be addressed.
Reports should strive to not delve into their sordid back stories ’round the clock, for fear of turning them into “stellar” villains, and thus give them the global notoriety they crave.
Aside from the “back-to-back” deaths of two “The Voice” discoveries, other tragic events involving entertainment players or venues have added to the industry’s current state of shock and foreboding, like the freak accident involving “Star Trek” comer Anton Yelchin’s car, and the Pulse gay club massacre in Orlando, Florida.
In most of those instances, the show biz factor looms as a key component, making the tragic events more sensational than they would have been if they had involved “unknowns.”