Thanks to TMZ and the Internet functioning as the CNN of celebrity meltdowns (seemingly robbing good business from all those mom-and-pop tabloids), we now know who are the villains and victims of the celebrity set. Whether it’s Mel Gibson telling his to “smile and blow” him, Tiger Woods finding someone other than his wife to do that, or Kanye West doing…well, whatever the hell he wants, TV and the internet are there, not only to tell us who these people are, and what they’re doing, but also what to think about them. I broach this subject now, as we’ve just seen the release of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to universal critical acclaim and meager album sales (whether that’s owed to media disdain or Mediafire is anyone’s guess), and the trailer for The Beaver and before you think you already saw that movie on Redtube, this one’s a mainstream movie starring Mel Gibson as a man whose life collapses, and he begins to communicate using a beaver hand puppet. The speculation is that a film that should have been his comeback, but his recent…voicemails have caused the film to already lose funding.
So how do we handle the art produced by artists of ill-repute? Well, I for one will tell you that I listened to Kanye’s album, and I watched the trailer for The Beaver. My thoughts: Mel Gibson is a verbally abusive bastard with whom no woman should ever become romantically involved again, but his film looks fantastic. I know, I know, how can I support such a guy? Well, the fact is he’s a talented performer, and I’m sure he would have even rocked that cameo in The Hangover 2, which he lost after Zach “Comedic Genius” Galifianakis complained about having someone so abusive to women in his film. Galifianakis is, of course, right in standing up for what he believes in, and the sequel to a movie which featured a cameo from a convicted rapist (Anybody remember Tyson did that?) is no place for someone like Gibson, who has so little respect for women.
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| Tried to find an image of them both together. Somehow, this is what Google Image Search turned out. |
Now, Mr. West’s album, on the other hand, I did not look upon so favorably. Now, before you start screaming hypocrisy, I want to point out it’s not because of Kanye’s recent behavior. Yes, I think he’s a self-absorbed man-child, but apparently on his record, so does he. My problem is I just didn’t like the album. Yes, his arrogance factors into it, but only in the sense that I wish he would just stop talking about it for one track. Instead, for me, what we get is a pointless, album-long diatribe of how “bad” he is. Woohoo. Sure, he has an ego. Lots of stars do. I’m not suggesting he be blacklisted, nor will I suggest that he’s a genius for writing such “brilliant” lyrics as “I’m the abomination of the Obama-nation” (Congrats, Kanye, you picked up on the critique that was implied in that term since it’s inception) or “deep” philosophy like “No one man should have that much power” (because there ain’t been nobody saying that before), but simply state that I feel his talent doesn’t quite match his boasting. On Mr. Gibson, it does.
But the larger point I’m trying to make is that we as consumers of entertainment would probably be best off not smearing an artist’s work based on their personal behavior nor “defending” them in an effort to be cool and be different, but instead simply taking the art for what it is. Art. If Michelangelo once punched a kitten, would that make the Sistine Chapel ceiling any less beautiful? Conversely, if Taylor Swift punched the same kitten (this poor feline seems to be taking a fictitious beating. My apologies to imaginary PETA) and faced public ridicule, would her semi-whiny, self-absorbed (though admittedly catchy, and on my iPod) music now be the work of a tortured, misunderstood genius? Somehow, I’m thinking not. The truth is, you can’t keep a great artist down, and you can’t hand a mediocre artist their crown, or as Mel himself put it in an interview:
“I am one tough motherf****r and you can't bother me anymore. You ask anybody what their (sic) number one fear is and it's public humiliation. Multiply that on a global scale and that's what I've been through. It changes you and makes you one tough motherf****r. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”
