Friday, January 4, 2008

Stop Laughing. I mean it.

I know everyone will say, "Oh, Nina, you are such a wise-ass. Stop making fun of Britney. It's not nice." Here's the thing: I am not making fun of Britney by posting this picture of her foot strapped to a gurney. If I were, I would just post the link to TMZ and let y'all go crazy - because that is what Britney clearly is. That, and proof that tight abs, truckloads of cash, $50,000 cars and adorable toddlers do not make people happy. In all her pantless nights out, I have never really considered that she might end up dead - and friends in the computer, I'm there. If I were a meaner person (I am sure there is one out there) I would be posting a Britney death clock on my sidebar.

You might be wondering why I care. Here's the thing: I don't care specifically about Britney any more than I did about Anna Nicole (OK, I sort of cared about Anna Nicole. That shit bothered me). I also don't care much about celebrities or their stuff or their private lives.

However. Take a good look at the foot strapped the to gurney. Is that really funny? Is someone in that much trouble an appropriate target for other people's recreation? I say not.

Craig Ferguson says it best here:



Link here if you can't get the embedded video to play. It's worth your time to watch it.

13 comments:

PrincessPolly said...

Personally I feel so badly for Britney - I've just always thought she seemed like quite a nice girl and I think she's depressed. It's a shame she has to live her whole life under a camera lens now, when I think she was originally pushed into it by her pushy mother (after her sister;s current troubles, this makes me think that even more - I hope Jamie Lynn doesn't go the same way!) And I haven't really watched Craig Ferguson's stuff previously but he made me laugh - I'm gonna have to watch him more often! As a fellow Scot, I should support him. . .

nicole antoinette said...

She's such a train wreck, I don't even know what to say anymore. I mean, it was funny before but now it's half sad and half boring.

Forrest said...

This is a long way from the Mickey Mouse Club. Her home is a scary place, right now.

I could live a lifetime of torment and torture perceived as though there were no other options and never leave my tiny bedroom. And everyone around me would always be, as they always are, on the outside looking in.

Poor, poor, Britney.

Anonymous said...

I don't mean to be callous... but in this world, people only get what they pay for... Britney chose the life she is leading. She was not forced to this place, instead she made a conscious decision to be where she is. As such, there is a certain amount of personal responsibility she needs to take well before I start feeling sorry for her.

Mental illness isn't something to laugh about surely, but I have a difficult time feeling compassion for someone who is clearly making bad decisions despite having people around her who have tried to steer her on course... when you add children into the mix and still you choose to behave like a nutjob, I have even less sympathy for you.

If she does die, and it is a very real possibility, i can safely say her children will be a lot better off in the long run.

(T) (H) (B) said...

It's sad such things have to happen to a Superstar. She shouldn't marry her backup dancer.
Think he ruined her life..

utenzi said...

I usually like Ferguson's stand-up though sometimes he takes things a bit too far. I wonder what he must have been like while still drinking. Scary.

I can't say I have any sympathy for Britney or Smith. Celebrities like that are just living too fast and crazy. Britney might be joining Smith far too soon, and that is unfortunate, but it's not like she's not had any warning. Her foot is just the latest in a long series of warnings.

Nina said...

PrincessPolly, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Yes, it's all very sad. And I do sometimes look askance at her mother. What a mess. The part about her living this nightmare under a camera lens is what bothers me about all this, more than any other thing.

NicoleAntionette, I agree, except I don't think we are in boring territory anymore. The pantless outfits and the late night cheeto runs to the local gas station? That was boring stuff. After this incident, however, I think we are watching someone die and my main question is whether, as a matter of universal human compassion, we should turn the camera off. (I know e! is rolling his eye so hard right now he probably has whiplash).

Rick, You make a good point: no one really understands the suffering of other people except for in an abstract way. We can feel bad for each other and want to help each other but to really know what it's like "in there" for another person is hard. That's why, see above, I think it's time to stop laughing at her. It's just not funny anymore.

e!, I knew I could count on you to point out that she is the author of her own demise! Well, it's true. SHe is. She did the whole thing to herself, just as anybody who ends up similarly strapped to a gurney due to intoxication and erratic behavior does. My objective in posting this is to point out that people who have half an ass check in the grave are not appropriate means of recreation and fun for other people. When she is gone, she will be really, actually, completely dead, and that's worth thinking about. Regarding her kids: a mother still alive can get help and can change. A dead one can't.

Utenzi, yeah, they live too fast and go too far and have to sense of their own limitations. I guess that's part of why I posted this. People were outraged when OJ Simpson tried to publish a book called "If I did it" - on behalf of the families of the dead people involved. My problem with the press coverage of Britney losing her mind is that no one will be outraged and call profiting from her story an ethical problem unless she DIES. She has to die before anyone will say "enough is enough." So of course she is responsible for her own problems - including the problem of being a celebrity and losing her privacy. She did that. But when does the rest of the world have an obligation to put down the camera? I say right about now.

Thanks for putting up with a half-way serious post, everybody.

LizLSB said...

I'm one of the people predicting she will OD this year, but I don't have a deathclock ticking away on site. (Interesting idea, though.) I also feel very strongly that Amy Winehouse will OD soon, which would make me sad. Her voice is amazingly different to me; wish she didn't have this nasty heroin habit. I think some of these people would be screwed up anyway, but because of their chosen professions, their screw-ups are public.

EmmaL said...

I agree, we need to turn the camera off. This isn't funny - this is life and death. Alcoholism, drinking, drug addiction, drug use - it kills people. About 15 people I know have died in two years from drug and alcohol use/addiction, and more than half of those are suicides. Good video - I'm right there with him the entire way - why - because I'm a sober alcoholic. I agree with everything he says. I posted a funny story about a phone call I got - and the point of the story wasn't that the person calling had relapsed - but someone in the program gave me hard time about it as I suspected someone would - which frankly pissed me off beyond belief. The thing is - that wasn't the point of the story (so I could have certainly left that detail out) - they accused me in a polite way of not being compassionate (though frankly, no one who read that post knows the entire story so I think people should be wary in their judgments, but that's another post maybe) - it isn't that I am not compassionate - I am - extremely, why - because I relate. I know how hard it is to get sober, it's the hardest thing I've ever done. But it is a choice - absolutely - it's a choice and the thing is - you get help when you are ready and it's that simple. We all get there when we are supposed to get there. There is nothing you can do to make a person get there - no amount of money, pleading, forcing, begging, trying to help - will work. I just hope she gets there before it's too late. Sorry that was long.

Anonymous said...

Truth be told, if she didn't want to live in front of the camera, she wouldn't... how many other celebrities are absent from the gossip dailies? What she is going through now is on the front covers of gossip rags because she wants to remain famous and as such, frequents places that she absolutely knows she will be photographed.

And take it from someone whose troubled mother disappeared (when I was still young enough to not be destroyed by her antics)... an absent (or arguably, dead) mother is better than a trainwreck...

Anonymous said...

I actually watched all 5460983457 minutes of that and at the end, there will be people who are public train wrecks and people who are just quiet train wrecks. Hopefully, you are not on that train

Nina said...

LAS, Sorry you have lost so many people. That's kind of the point I am trying to make though, by being sanctimonious. People may not value her life, but her life is still a life. SHe does count, even if she is behaving badly.

e! Sorry to hear your mom was... less than ideal. That sucks and you are right, I don't really know what position that put you in. One thing I like about you, e!, is that I can count on you to be tough when I am not. And to also have the other half of your brain firing when mine is not. I do blame Britney for her problems and her behavior; my issue is with how mean and greedy people are.

My Reflecting Pool, Not on the train. I know my way around it. Read that both ways. (And thanks for stopping by).

Nina said...

Oh and LizB, re: Amy Winehouse, yes. She is also in trouble. The pictures of her are even scarier than those of Britney.