Why All The Farrah Fuss?
We’re not trying to be rude or insensitive here, we promise.
After all, we’ve loved Farah Fawcett as long as we can remember. Hell, her Seventies spreads are the reason brown eraser tips are “our favorite.” And our founding editor almost married a chick with “Farrah Fawcett hair,” for crying out loud.
Still, we’re curious at the national preoccupation with Fawcett and the battle she’s fighting/ losing with cancer.
Seriously, celebrities die all the time … often in threes. It’s sad when it happens (to non-celebrities, too) but people pay their respects and move on, right?
Why, then, is Fawcett’s saga worth countless repetition on tabloid covers, Entertainment Tonight-style shows and … get this … its own NBC prime time exclusive tonight?
Or for that matter, why do the deaths/ dying days of certain celebrities merit media overload while others are given a passing pat on the back en route to the Great Beyond?
No really, this troubles us …
How big has Fawcett’s demise become? Well, apparently the “Farrah Death Watch” is so hot that people are suing each other for “creative control” over it.
From FOX News:
The Associated Press reported Craig Nevius filed the suit on Wednesday in Malibu, seeking more creative control over “Farrah’s Story.” The documentary chronicles Fawcett’s cancer battle.
In a statement to FOX News, Nevius said, “Make no mistake: this suit is not against Farrah Fawcett. It is for Farrah. My motivation today is the same as it was since i met and began working with her in 2004: to execute her artistic vision while maintaining and protecting her privacy to the extent that she wanted it protected and maintained. This is not about money or about ego. It’s about Farrah. And the trust she placed in me to make sure that her voice and message are heard. These are the moments in a person’s life that count. The details of the law suit speak for themselves.”
At a red carpet event for the documentary Wednesday in Beverly Hills, Ryan O’Neal described the project to FOX News. “It’s a gruesome story, it’s a terrible story, but sometimes out of terrible stories come a light and a hope.”
Good God.
“A light and a hope?”
Hollywood is callously exploiting the death of a one-time icon, playing to our morbid fascinations while studio executives laugh all the way to the bank.
Ask yourself this – how big of an icon was Farrah in 1989? Or 1999?
Exactly.
She’s “iconic” now only inasmuch as the “gruesome” details of her death sells ads.
For a network producing some quality new shows, NBC should be ashamed of itself for airing this trash.
Let the woman die in peace, with her friends and family.
UPDATE – Oh, and if we see Donnie Osmond reminiscing about how Farrah will “always be an angel” to him one more time, there’s a good change our television set is going out the window …
Comments
By Dawn Nichols on May 15th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I think she was terific on this show tonight, she has a lot of guts. i wish a miracle could happen. She’s sharing and it helps her go on too. To “fitsnews”, mind your own business, don’t like it, don’t watch! have you gone threw something like this? count your blessings you can live, it’s all she wanted. I’m her age, of course she beautiful but she played the not so bright roll a long time and now I have a lot more respect for her. I find her and Ryans life long afair heartwarming too. God Bless her, his will be done. She has my prayers. : D
By PBurk on May 15th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I am in total accord with your comments. Years ago,,,, she was young,,, attractive,,, and craved media attention. Today,,, I am getting mixed messages from her,,,, as she blasts the media for not giving her the privacy she thinks she deserves. HOWEVER,,, she obviously has approved this special that is being aired. Once again,,, a craving for media attention. What about the many thousands of cancer victims,,,, who endured even more than this woman has,,,, whose stories go untold,,, because they are “nobodies,,, and the media doesn’t care about them. And the many beautiful women,,,, who also lost their lovely hair to the chemo treatment? They remain unnoticed & unrecognized in their battle,,,,because their name is not Farrah Fawcet. Such a damn shame!
By patrick tullius on May 15th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
How dare you post such a disgusting article like that?? I pray you get anal cancer and you try and find somewhere to seek a right treatment for it. There is a big reason she is doing this and if you can’t see that than you shouldn’t be writing at all.
By Enough is enough on May 16th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Skipping over the Farah issue completely, I would really like to sit down some night and watch TV or read a magazine without all these people in the media thinking that they have to tell me I need to be screened for one kind of cancer or the other. I know that at some point, no matter how many medical tests I have (or don’t have) my body is going to give out and I’ll find out all about the afterlife. But in the mean time, if they all don’t mind, I would enjoy not having this society-wide obsession with cancer shoved down my throat!
By Ashlee on May 16th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Why blame NBC? It’s obviously something Farrah wanted to share with others who are struggling with a similar battle. While I am a young college student, I don’t know her work too well, so I didn’t grow up being a fan. What I do know from watching “Farrah’s Story”, is that she is trying to give hope to those who are struggling with their own war. Farrah is obviously a very iconic celebrity through the media, and it seems as though her intentions are nothing but positive in terms of giving hope to others, standing up for health care privacy, and even displaying a side that celebrities are regular people as well. Unfortunately, we live in a society that doesn’t care as much about those who are struggling if we don’t know them (not the instance for everyone). Technically through the media, it’s almost as if the world knows her and makes it as if the world is losing someone near and dear to them.
By Farrah Fan on May 16th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Oh stop being a sick bastard. It’s not funny. A beautiful woman and soul is dying, and you just have to be a freaking heckler.
Jerk.
By jcb on May 16th, 2009 at 5:57 am
WHY? because many of us had mothers that went through the exact same pain Farah’s going though that’s why! it reminds us of the pain and suffering, as well as the courage these people manage to awaken even though they have been given a death sentence. it has very little to do with her ‘celebrity’ (i mean was she even considered a major celebrity anymore?), it has to do with the fact that she was brave enough to video tape it and reminds us all how precious family is. so yes, you are being insensitive, rude, and irresponsible. maybe considering using a website for more positive aspects of life.
By Nomad on May 30th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
despite all the legal rumors going around her documentary, there’s a good chance that Fawcett’s work will raise awareness about cancer and thus benefit a lot of people