A few weeks ago, most of us probably didn’t know the name Aaron Hernandez or much about him. Now, his name is all over the news, and it’s pretty hard to ignore.
The former football player for the NFL New England Patriots has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting a friend, and he was soon released by his football team. After he was released, the Patriots held a jersey exchange for any fan that had purchased a Hernandez jersey but no longer wanted to wear his number. In addition, a history of failed drug tests and a selfie from his Twitter page a few years back holding a gun have began to circulate.
It’s a messy story, and the media can’t seem to get enough. But why is it that we’re so captivated? If he’d been an average citizen, would this story have made more than the local news?
Celebrity privacy seems to be a non-existent luxury these days. Magazines like People, Us Weekly, and Star report on the every move of the famous folks we love and admire, from their trips to the gas station to their most scandalous secrets. Notoriously gossipy networks and sites like E! and TMZ devote their news reports entirely to Hollywood. Even hard-core news publications, such as the New York Post, have their celebrity update outlets. And as long as these works give the public what they want, it seems we’ll continue to devour it.
The latest commentary on America’s fascination with celebrity life comes in the form of an indie film by director and writer Sofia Coppola, “The Bling Ring.” Based on a group of real-life teens, the mockumentary/indie drama follows a group of friends in Hollywood who break into celebrities’ houses and rob them. The film gives insight into the minds of the teens who don the stolen clothes and use the money to live the kinds of lavish lifestyles usually reserved for the famous (and occasionally infamous) names in whose footsteps the group aspires to follow.
The film definitely offers up a few valuable lessons. The teenagers don’t consider the consequences to their actions and are forced to face them big-time when they’re arrested and taken to court. The real-life Bling Ring teens all served various sentences in prison and rehab for their crimes.
But even scarier is their collective oblivion to the world around them. In one scene, Israel Broussard’s character Marc is shown recording a YouTube video, smoking what appears to be a bowl of marijuana while dancing to Ester Dean’s “Drop It Low”. There was a real video, recorded by Bling Ring member Nick Prugo, of this exact thing happening.
In addition, many lines and scenes are almost directly ripped from E!’s cancelled reality series Pretty Wild. Originally intended as a reality series following a family of aspiring models, it quickly turned into a show that followed Alexis Neiers, middle child and Bling Ring member, throughout her struggle with arrest and trial. Emma Watson’s movie character Nikki is based on Alexis, while Taissa Farmiga’s Sam is based on adopted oldest sibling Tess Taylor.
But why didn’t the Neirs-Dunn family cancel the show after all of the bad press? The show aired its entire 10-episode order before it was announced as cancelled. With each continuing episodes, Alexis and sister Tess make bad decision after bad decision, cementing themselves as two more spoiled and unintelligent Hollywood socialites in the vein of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Both girls later served time in rehab for addiction to hard drugs.
And now, three years later, the media continues to dish out reputation-ruining gossip and photos, unearth scandals and create faux celebrities like the Bling Ring kids for America to obsess over. Will any of the famous and fortunate ever learn? And will we ever stop? With the Internet readily available for news to travel faster than ever, it seems highly unlikely. People like Aaron Hernandez and Alexis Neiers will always exist for our entertainment, and while the names will change, the public’s need for gossip will always stay the same.