Loose-lipped stars reap heightened hubris from irate viewers
We all make mistakes and say the wrong things, but we get away with it most of the time, because our gaffes are committed in private. Alas, show biz stars have no such safety valve—their smallest and merest booboos are broadcast all over the ether and the social media, for the entire plugged-in universe to gasp, giggle at, and gloat over!
Recently, for instance, Charlize Theron made a careless comment that ticked some netizens off due to its insensitive “reverberations.” What got them so irate and incensed?
Theron thoughtlessly shared that one of the crosses she had to bear as a public personality was having to contend with nosy and intrusive paparazzi, who hounded her day and night. In fact, she said, the experience was akin to a soldier going to war and facing the enemy’s bullets!
Theron’s inappropriate linking of celebrities and soldiers under fire shocked viewers, particularly relatives of military personnel in combat zones, who thought that the star diminished the danger their loved ones were exposed to by relating it to her own, obviously more superficial concerns.
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If Charlize was rapped for making that single inappropriate comment, can you imagine the heightened hubris that Gwyneth Paltrow has had to contend with thus far this year, for her series of boners that have sequentially been rubbing viewers the wrong way?
It all started with Gwyneth’s description of her break-up with her husband, Chris Martin, as a mutual decision of “conscious uncoupling.” Some netizens thought she was being too clever and quotable for comfort, but the furor soon subsided.
—Not for long, though: Just last week, Paltrow let loose with another loose-lipped zinger that some viewers disliked and summarily dissed: She likened her being a public personality whose privacy was constantly being invaded as a condition akin to constantly being raped! —Well, you can imagine what relatives of rape victims thought about that insensitive comment!
In fact, in an informal poll of media pundits, Paltrow was cited as the current star whom the biggest number of fans love to hate!
They find her too smug, uppity and self-absorbed for everybody’s own good, and fervently hope that she gets off her high horse and chooses her thoughts and words much more carefully!
In a stellar field full of inconsiderate and thoughtless luminaries, she wins the unofficial “title” of the show biz star currently afflicted with the worst case of Foot in Mouth disease!