That’s it. After my mind being rotted by all the copies of Bella and Closer magazine that are constantly floating around the ward, I have finally succumbed. I’m going to do a post about celebrities.
Or, more specifically, a post about Britney Spears.
From watching the story unfold on the Oh No They Didn’t blog, the current twist in the Britney Spears saga is going something like this.
- After refusing to hand over the kids to K-Fed, Britney has been taken to a psychiatric unit on a “5150 hold” (which as far as I can gather is roughly analogous to being sectioned over here), and was subsequently released after 36 hours.
- Despite her well-known drug and alcohol problems, allegedly she tested negative for illegal drugs.
- Rumours are that Britney’s increasingly bizarre behaviour may be due to an underlying mental illness rather than simply drug-induced psychosis. Possibly this may be bipolar disorder.
Now, and I’m sure I’m probably about the 13,584,937th person to say this, but doesn’t this all make the whole media circus around her more than a little distasteful? Paparazzi following her every move, zooming their cameras in to catch her facial expression as she’s strapped onto a stretcher in the ambulance, following the ambulance to hospital. After all, this may well be the actions of a woman suffering from a severely debilitating mental illness. It’s hard to imagine that there wouldn’t be a much more strident wave of public condemnation if the paparazzi so blatantly invaded the privacy of somebody’s battles with, say, Multiple Sclerosis.
Still, I suppose it must make for a fairly effective suicide watch. Assuming that the creeps would be willing to put the cameras down for long enough to stop her jumping off a bridge, that is.
The paparazzi’d be pushing to get the first shot of Britney post-jump.
My patients are certainly of the opinion that Britney has a mental illness. Some of them are a little put out that she gets to wander the streets in her state, and they’re not allowed to leave hospital grounds.
“Assuming that the creeps would be willing to put the cameras down for long enough to stop her jumping off a bridge”
No they wouldn’t.
Have you been reading the Diana case? Paparazzi stood around and got in the way of those first on scene, trying to get a good photo of the dying princess. None of them tried to help. (I’m not one of those who felt my life fell apart the day she died, but feel there is something very wrong about people who put sensationalism above another human’s life)
Personally I can’t think of anything worse than doing 1:1 obs on Britney, she might start singing.
On a more serious note many performers have or are suspected to have had Bipolar disorder, Stephen Fry, Robbie Williams, Adam Ant, Carrie Fisher, Sinead O’ Connor, Ozzy Osborne, Axl Rose, Tony Slattery, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), and Vincent van Gogh to name a few.
“I’m not one of those who felt my life fell apart the day she died, but feel there is something very wrong about people who put sensationalism above another human’s life”
I think they put $$$ before the news. These guys get paid by the ‘sensation’ of their “work”, and are primed to go after the best (/worst) things they can find. I’d guess most did it without even thinking of what they were doing at the time. Be interesting to know if any of them had a guilt trip after.
But on that point, how many patients do we incarcerate and think “This just isn’t right”?
As for Britney, under the current stress and the realisation that ‘celebrity status’ can’t get you everything/everywhere in life, it’s no surprise she’s feeling like going under. it’s what her Mickey Mouse (literally) publicist would have convinced her (and her parents) of at the age of 4. Most might call it spoilt brat syndrome; but then, we (in the royal sense) the public spoiled her (with a little help from el paprazzi etc).
Our culture allows people to be elevated to such status and then just loves it when they fall so far and hard – it makes us all feel not so bad about ourselves then of course.
I recon the BBC have been reading this ‘ere blog!
Celebrity circus
Have mental health woes become a new spectator sport?
Pfft, BBC. They’re so behind the curve compared to us.
so last season as well darling