Stars Behaving Badly

Abstract

There appears to be a high degree of public tolerance for celebrities who misbehave and break the law. This has given rise to concerns that celebrities are bad role models who are glamorizing antisocial behaviour. However, it would be wrong to suggest that celebrity antics are uniformly tolerated and accepted by the public. The reputation of some celebrities is undoubtedly seriously affected when they breach moral, legal and social codes, while other celebrities suffer few adverse effects. This paper examines the importance of gender and class in ascertaining the limits of permissiveness that apply to celebrity wrongdoing. Female celebrities of a lower-class status are often subjected to very high levels of public scrutiny and punitive media commentary. This point will be illustrated with reference to the British reality TV star Jade Goody and her fall from grace following public outcry about her treatment of her co-contestant Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother 2007.

Keywords:

• celebrity
• rule of law
• equality
• social hierarchy
• reputation
• reality television

Notes

1. Thomson (2007, p. 149) notes that there is a much lower rate of successful prosecution of sports figures in rape cases and points to the social acceptance of sexual violence which is reflected in permissive public attitudes to sportsmen charged with rape.

2. The difference in media coverage may not just reveal important gender differences in motorists' behaviour (see Corbett & Caramlau 2006), but it is also indicative of the different social expectations that apply to women drivers.

3. Holmes (2004, p. 120) aptly illustrates this point by quoting a female contestant's reflection on her experiences in the Big Brother house: “All you've got to worry about is the task, having a cup of tea, doing a bit of sunbathing, and what you're going to eat for dinner.”

4. One such example is that of the former Blue Peter (BBC) and This Morning (ITV) presenter John Leslie who has been involved in several sensational tabloid revelations (yet legally unproven allegations) of rape. He was sacked as This Morning co-presenter in 2002, which effectively ended his media career. In a recent interview he claimed that his accusers were all too easily tempted to fabricate allegations against him so as to be able to sell their stories to the papers (Decca Aitkenhead 2008).

5. However, as Turner (2004) explains, that does not mean that royalty does not have to work on its public image. Especially since the Diana era, astute image management has become as crucial for British royals as it is for other celebrities. Such strategies are necessary to challenge any perception that the legitimacy of royal celebrities is founded purely on inherited privilege: hard work, patronage of good causes, public service, moral leadership, and so on, are all carefully woven into the narrative that the royal family offers the public “value for money.”