When the studio system
was in place, Hollywood would control almost every aspect of their
stars' public life. The deal was that they'd give you your fame and in
exchange you'd spend the next few years wearing a metaphorical
ball-gag whilst your soul was being fucked like Ving Rhames in
Pulp
Fiction. When your business is investing in the popularity of a
famous face then I guess you want to ensure that people don't find
out that they're actually murderers, perverts or worse.. single
mothers. Things are a little different now as you're probably aware.
Whereas once we were presented with the squeaky clean idealisation of
what we should aspire to, we now instead get Charlie Sheen drinking
tiger blood whilst stoned on a rooftop. It's easy to look back on those
older days with nostalgia and lament the fact that society has since
gone to shit. People from yesteryear got actors like
Gone With The
Wind's Clarke Gable with their sophisticated charm and dapper
personalities and what do we have? Mel Gibson's racist rants and
David Carradine hanging from his cock in a cupboard.
