I once heard that the mysterious and inaccessible aura of a certain star was due to her being slightly deaf. To hide it, he spoke little off-screen and kept his distance, which not only increased his appeal but also allowed him to escape the attrition caused by media exposure. In old Hollywood, they knew exactly how important it was to protect stars from themselves and to prevent their true personality from coming through behind the perfect packaging they had provided and ruining the product. An army of agents and publicists worked hard to create hypoallergenic, pH-neutral celebrities by offering syrupy biographies and interviews that were long and frivolous and sparse and controversial. They told us their favorite food and even their Aztec horoscope, but we didn’t know whether they were Anabaptists, Trotskyists or Flat-Earthers. They did it to protect their goose that lays the golden eggs, allowing us to maintain the illusion of admiring the right people.
A side effect of the variety of screens and the immediacy of social networks is that it is very complicated, if not impossible, to act as a mythomaniac in the present. Not a day goes by without a star using the visibility their work gives them to teach about strange topics, be it imperialism, feminism or freedom, which is never the freedom of being imprisoned by someone whose name is mine can’t hear without a shiver. which Cernuda longed for, but rather to drink beer or insult ladies. No one wants to talk about his book, as Umbral angrily demanded 30 years ago. The news is no longer their albums or releases, but their opinions.
Given yesterday’s fake interviews, we might guess that these idols were a bit boring. Today, the verbal incontinence of the stars dispels all suspicions and leaves us only with certainties.
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