Some Stars Suffocate in Fame It’s lonely at the top. And never before has the isolation of a superstar been so vividly portrayed as in the Michael Jackson documentary airing this month on ABC and VH1. Jackson’s trip with his children to the Berlin zoo turned into a small riot. While he was shopping in Las Vegas, gawking and photo-flashing fans pressed against the store windows. We know celebrities live in a bubble. But this is a glimpse of what it’s like to be trapped inside. 有些明星爲名所累 高處不勝寒 本月在ABC和VH1頻道播映的關於Michael Jackson的紀錄片首次生動地展現了作爲一位巨星與世人相隔的一面。 Jackson和他孩子們的柏林動物園之旅引起了一次小小的騷亂。而當他在Las Vegas購物時，影迷們擠在櫥窗上盯着他看，還拍照。 我們都知道名人生活在虛幻中。然而，這個紀錄片可以使觀衆瞥見身陷其中是什麼滋味。 “It can make you rethink even the simplest things you want to do,” Daredevil star Ben Affleck said. When he and fiancée Jennifer Lopez dropped into a shop to get his watch repaired, they were mobbed by onlookers, and the shopping mall had to be closed. Of fame, Chicago star and Oscar nominee Catherine Zeta-Jones says, “I thought it really was sunglasses and dinner parties, being invited out a lot, having a good table in a restaurant, but it’s not.” “When I’m in the park with my son and I see six (paparazzi) running behind trees, what am I going to be doing that’s any different from any other mother in this park? I’m going to be hoping he isn’t going to fall off the swing.” “它會使你重新考慮人生，哪怕只是你想做的很簡單的一些事情，”“Daredevil”一片中的明星Ben Affleck說。當他和未婚妻Jennifer Lopez來到一家商店想把他的手錶修一下時，他們受到影迷聚衆包圍，致使整個商業街被迫關閉。 談到名氣，“Chicago”一片中的明星並獲得Oscar獎提名的Catherine Zeta-Jones說，“我原以爲作明星就意味着戴太陽鏡和赴宴會，經常受邀外出，在高檔餐廳裏吃飯。但其實不是這樣。” “當我和兒子在公園時，我發現他們有6個人（狗仔隊）藏在樹後，我所做的事和公園裏其他任何一個母親有什麼不同嗎？我只是一樣怕兒子從鞦韆上摔下來。” For Diane Lane, everyday experiences can be painful. “I’m just basically a shy person,” the Oscar-nominated star of Unfaithful says. “It’s a dichotomy to be a shy person and have fame go with the job that you do. That’s something that never ceases to be disconcerting.” Performers push, drive and sell themselves to achieve superstar status, but they wind up sacrificing themselves. It is, as Affleck put it, “a Faustian bargain.” “Everybody wants to be Cary Grant,” Cary Grant once said. “Even I want to be Cary Grant.” 對Diane Lane而言，每天的經歷可能變得痛苦不堪。“我基本是一個害羞的人，”因“Unfaithful”一片而獲Oscar獎提名的她說。“我的生活一分爲二，一方面是害羞內向的我，另一方面我的工作又與名氣相連。這一點一直令我不安。” 表演家們竭盡全力達到巨星地位，但結果是犧牲了自我生活。正如Affleck所說：名人的得失是一種“浮士德式的交易”。 “每個人都想成爲Cary Grant，”Cary Grant曾經說過。“甚至連我自己都想成爲Cary Grant。” The trade-off: A trip to Target today means an unflattering photo in USA magazine next week. Such a life, even when surrounded by admirers, changes a person. Some adapt and thrive and are able to stay grounded. Others lose their footing and believe their own hype. And often, how they handle the fame can determine how successful a career can be. Early film star Greta Garbo came to loathe the limelight. “Being a movie star means being looked at from every possible direction,” she once said. “You are never left at peace; you’re just fair game.” 這是一種交換：今天去一趟Target商店，一週後，一張有損自己形象的照片就會刊登在《美國》雜誌上。 如此的生活，就算被崇拜者圍繞，也會改變一個人。有些人能夠適應後繼續發展，能夠保持清醒的頭腦。而另外一些人則被衝昏了頭腦，把天花亂墜的宣傳報道當作是真。通常，他們如何處理名聲決定他們事業的成功程度。 早期的影星Greta Garbo憎惡如此受到關注。“成爲電影明星意味着要被人從每個可能的角度關注，”她曾經說過。“你得不到片刻安寧；你就是一個獵物。” She became a recluse, ending her career but adding to her mystique. Film critic David Thomson in the St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture observes that “in making the journey away from fame into privacy she established herself forever as a magical figure, a true goddess, remote and austere, but intimate and touching.” Princess Diana, too, used the court of popular opinion as a weapon —not to maintain mystique, but to become a beloved figure against a royal family that she felt disapproved of her. But in the end, many believe, it was her fame that ultimately killed her. 因此，她過起隱居生活，結束了演藝生涯，但這反而增加了她的神祕。影評家David Thomson在《St. James流行文化大全》中評論道，“在遠離名利場，迴歸自我的過程中，她其實使自己永遠成爲了一個神奇人物，一位真正的女神，遙遠、令人生畏，同時又是那樣親近和另人感動。” Diana王妃也同樣以公衆意見爲武器———不是爲保持神祕性，卻因此成爲與她覺得無法接受她的皇室相抗爭的、深受人民愛戴的人物。但同時很多人認爲，其實也正是她的名氣最終導致了她的死亡。 Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University outside Washington, D.C., and author of What price Fame?, points out that artists want not only the trappings of fame but also the validation that fame affords. “Ludwig van Beethoven loved composing music, but he probably would have enjoyed it less if no one ever listened to the product.” “Visibility—celebrity has become a key factor in success,” writes Irving Rein, a Northwestern University professor and co-author of High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Professionals Into Celebrities. It’s all part of the “business” of fame in an increasingly competitive marketplace. 位於首都華盛頓市郊的George Mason大學的經濟學教授Tyler Cowen寫了一本名爲《名氣價值幾許？》的書，他指出藝術家們不僅需要名聲的虛飾，而且也需要名氣所能起到的證明作用。“Ludwig van Beethoven熱愛譜曲，但是如果沒有人來聽他的作品，他熱愛的程度可能也是要大打折扣的。” “受關注性-名氣已成爲成功的一個關鍵因素，”Northwestern大學教授和《倍受關注性：將職業人士製造、推銷成爲名人》一書作者之一的 Irving Rein如此寫道。在競爭愈發激烈的市場上，名氣已成爲商業運作。 “The reason is fairly simple,” he says.“Celebrity equals exposure. Exposure equals free media. Free media equals money.” While watching the Jackson documentary, viewers might wonder, “Isn’t he courting this?” He didn’t need to let two whimpering fans bug him. He seemed to enjoy the adoration of the mob at the zoo. He dangled a baby from a balcony for the pleasure of his fans below. “He toys with the spotlight,” Chicago star Queen Latifah says. Fans, she says, “follow him everywhere. If they want a show, then here it is.” But she adds:“I feel for Michael. He doesn’t get to live a normal life.” Her own fame, particularly now that she has been nominated for an Oscar, has cut into her ability to lead a normal life. “It’s 50-50. I can go to the grocery store because, dammit, you just have to go sometime. People don’t mob me too bad. They speak to me.I come across as approachable.” “原因很簡單，”他說。“名氣等於曝光。曝光等於免費媒體宣傳。免費媒體宣傳等於鈔票。” 在看Jackson的紀錄片時，觀衆可能會問，“這不是他自找的嗎？”他不需要讓兩個哀訴的fans打擾他。他似乎很喜愛在動物園受到人們的仰慕。他爲了下面fans的高興，把嬰兒從陽臺上往下晃來晃去。 “他遊戲聚光燈，”《Chicago》一片的明星Queen Latifah說。Fans，她說，“跟隨他到任何地方。如果他們想要一場表演，這就是。” 但是她又補充到：“我同情Michael，因爲他無法過正常人的生活。” 她自己的名氣，尤其是現在獲得Oscar獎提名以後，已影響她過正常生活的能力。 “這一切是一半一半。我可以去雜貨店，因爲，見鬼，你有時就是要去一趟。人們對我還不算太過分。他們和我講話，我顯得平易近人。” However, she has to remind herself that every move is a potential headline, as was her arrest in November on drunken driving charges in California.“I consider myself a normal person, so I have to get it through my head that any mistake I make will be blown up and put across the (news) wire.” The unreality of stardom - being surrounded by fans and those on the celebrity’s payroll - can cloud judgment. Limp Bizkit lead man Fred Durst says this has happened to Britney Spears. “She has a life like Michael Jackson,” Durst told Access Hollywood this month. “It’s, like, out of control. The people around her that are full of (expletive), just agreeing with her, like, it’s kind of crazy. She almost can’t see what’s real and what’s not.” Age and life experience help keep a star grounded. Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins doesn’t do a lot of out-and-abouting. “When you watch them coming on the red carpet, you see the same faces, the same mega-folks of Hollywood, yap yap yap,” he said while promoting a film. “You get sick and tired of it.” 但是，她不得不提醒自己，她的每個行爲都可能成爲報紙頭條，就如11月她在California州因醉酒駕車被捕那次。“我把自己當成普通人，所以我就得記在腦子裏，我犯的每個錯誤都會被誇大，成爲新聞。” 明星地位導致的非真實性——— 被fans和僱傭的人圍繞——會影響明星們的判斷力。Limp Bizkit樂隊的主力Fred Durst說這就發生在Britney Spears身上。 “她的生活如同Michael Jackson，”Durst本月對《Access Hollywood》雜誌說。“就象一切都失控了。她周圍的那些人滿懷（咒罵語），總是附和她，一切都瘋了。她幾乎無法識別什麼是真的，什麼不是。” 年齡和生活閱歷能幫助明星們保持清醒。Oscar獎得主Anthony Hopkins很少外出。“當你看到他們從紅地毯上走來，你看到的面孔是一樣的，一樣的Hollywood的巨星們，呱呱講個不休，”他曾在促銷一部影片時說道。“你會覺得噁心，厭煩這一切。” Emmy winner Sela Ward (Once and Again) yearned for something away from fame. “I was living in the Hollywood community, a fast-paced, insular kind of experience.” That’s one of the reasons she wrote Homesick, a fond recollection of growing up in Mississippi, published last year. Fame doesn’t have to be so insular, some say. “What I’ve found is that people who want to have a grounded life and live a regular life, they find ways to do it,” says Simon Halls, partner in the big publicity firm PMK/HBH. “There are people who, for lots of reasons, let themselves get so isolated that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are surrounded by security people and advisers and assistants. Then you get in a situation where you psych yourself out and say, ‘I never go out in public.’” Emmy獎得主Sela Ward（“Once and Again”）則渴望名聲之外的東西。“我當時住在Hollywood一帶，那兒的生活節奏飛快、有點與外界隔絕。”這也是促使她撰寫《思鄉》一書的原因之一。該書去年發表，描述了她在Mississippi長大的美好回憶。 也有人說名聲不一定意味過與外界隔絕的生活。 “我發現那些想過真實、正常生活的人總能找到辦法做到，”PMK/HBH廣告公司的合夥人Simon Halls說。“也有些人出於種種原因，使自己與外界隔離起來，從而充分實現自我。他們被保安、顧問和助手圍繞。結果你弄得精神緊張並決定，‘我永遠不去公共場合了。’” But there are exceptions, he says. Calista Flockhart walks her dog down San Vincente Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can see Woody Harrelson strolling down Madison Avenue in New York. Neither is mobbed by fans. Ideally, for Jackson or any other star, celebrity is about controlling one’s own fame - something that isn’t always possible. Michael Douglas and Zeta-Jones are suing Hello Magazine for publishing photos of their 2000 wedding. The magazine says the stars forfeited their right to privacy by making their wedding an “international media event.” They sold photos to the highest bidder. Hello argues that if the couple had wanted to marry in private, they could have; it cited the weddings of Michelle Pfeiffer and David E. Kelly and Madonna and Guy Ritchie. Jennifer Garner, who stars in the hit movie Daredevil and the hit ABC show Alias, says she’s lucky when it comes to public attention in private moments - she’s oblivious. 但是，他說也有例外。譬如Calista Flockhart在Los Angeles 的San Vincente大道上遛狗。你也能看見Woody Harrelson在New York的Madison街上散步。他們都未受到聚衆圍觀。 對Jackson或其他任何明星而言，最理想的是名人要能夠控制自己的名聲 ———但這點並不總是能做到。 Michael Douglas和Zeta-Jones正在起訴Hello雜誌，因爲該雜誌發表了他們2000年婚禮的照片。雜誌則說，這兩位明星因把他們的婚禮辦成了一次“國際性新聞事件”而喪失了他們的隱私權。他們將照片出售給出價最高者。Hello辯駁說，如果當時這對夫婦想私下結婚的話，他們本來可以做到；該雜誌還舉了Michelle Pfeiffer和David E. Kelly和Madonna和Guy Ritchie婚禮的例子。 Jennifer Garner曾主演熱門影片Daredevil和ABC頻道風靡一時的電視節目Alias，她說，在隱私生活某些時刻受到公衆注意這件事上，她是幸運的——— 她可以做到不在意周圍人的盯視。 “I’ll walk into a restaurant, and I’ll have no idea people are looking at me,” she says. But her husband, Scott Foley, isn’t blind to the stares. “It can make him really uncomfortable when we go out to dinner,” she says. “He’ll tell me that people are staring at me, and I will have had no clue. Maybe that will change over time, but I hope I don’t ever pay it too much attention. You have to go out and live your own life as much as possible.” Matthew Broderick of ABC’s The Music Man says the kind of celebrity he and Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City) are experiencing now is bigger than anything they have known. But Broderick says, “I’m sure we’ll be upset when nobody gives a damn.” “當我走進一家餐廳時，我會不察覺人們在盯着我看，”她說。 但她的丈夫Scott Foley卻做不到不在意這些目光。“當我們外出吃飯時，這一切可以使他非常難受，”她說。“他會告訴我人們在盯着我看，而我則完全沒有意識到。也許隨着時間，這一點會變，但是我希望我對這些不要太在意。你得出門，儘可能地過屬於你自己的生活。” ABC頻道節目The Music Man中的Matthew Broderick說他和Sarah Jessica Parker（Sex and the City）現在感受到的名氣要比他們所能設想的要大。但Broderick說，“我相信，當沒有人關注我們時，我們會不安的。”
