FEEDING THE DIVA (OR DIVO)

In case you missed it this morning, OJ Simpson was back in court for attempting to contact a co-defendant in his trial. When admonishing him, the judge said "I don't know if it's arrogance or ignorance" that makes you try and do what you want to do. That brings up a great question for those celebrities/powerbrokers that we often hear about... is it arrogance or ignorance that makes them do things we deem stupid, reckless or even "above the law."


We see Britney driving around Studio City almost daily with a horde of paparazzi in tow. First of all, I don't understand how that STILL sells magazines, but let's move on. Since she was 12ish, she's had managers, tour managers, road managers, agents, personal assistants an lawyers on the payroll. While some of them might have initially stood up to her on issues of disagreement, Britney - in the end- pays all of them. You argue with someone enough you eventually want out of that relationship...it's human nature. You replace them with someone more like minded. So, in this gradual changing of the guard, Britney has filled her like with enablers and "yes men" who exist only to profit from their dealings with her and to not piss her off. Could it be that she's had people for 13 years going to Starbucks to get her coffee, to drive her to where she needed to go, to provide security from paparazzi, to shop for groceries for her and to fill her cars with gas only now she views that as normalcy and chooses to try and engage in those things. I mean, honestly, the rest of us do all those things on a regular basis. In her mind there's no reason she can't. However, those of us who live in reality realize that those things attract unwanted attention and would most likely be avoided by anyone with the means to avoid.

Is Britney brave and defiant in trying to live her life like any normal person on a day to day routine?

Look at OJ. After skating by on his murder rap, you'd think the guy would at least keep his nose clean. Instead he dives headfirst into a world of shady guys running cash only businesses and wearing full length furs. Though I think OJ is one of the most charismatic people on the planet, what kind of normal human thinks it's OK to storm a hotel room at gunpoint to retrieve stuff (even if it is stolen from you). His reckless abandon in trying to contact his co-defendant after it was strictly prohibited by his bond proves to me that he has no regard whatsoever for laws and probably is guilty of the original crime.

Wow. When does it get that bad. It's not an overnight shift, but when do the people that have been enabled by money and pwer wake up one day and go , "Shit, I can do WHATEVER I want." It's like Pete Townshend throwing TV's out the window at the Hyatt in LA in the 60's. He wasn't raised thinking that was acceptable behavior, yet he somehow migrated to the point where he thought if he had the money to be careless and pay for damage it was OK. Hey Pete, "IT'S NOT OK." There's a current country duo and one half of that group is very much of the same principle. He emboddies the philosophy of "do whatever you want, sort it out and pay for it later" and this is exactly the motto that requires "yes men" and enablers, then turns someone into a person who doesn't live in reality.

If you never get to this point, you can stay a celebrity and still lead a private but normal life and still have people that surround you and don't buy into the star side of things. They still call bullshit on you. But once it moves past the part where you control everyone who is supposed to be controlling you, all control is lost and you end up shaving your head at 4 am or storming a hotel room at gunpoint to get your suit back.