Hollywood: Authentic...NOT, Core post #4

While Dyer has discussed the importance of authenticity regarding stars, it has always been virtually impossible to achieve that due to the marketing machine that is Hollywood. After reading the article on Rock Hudson, one realized the extent to which team Hollywood will go to preserve and assure their power in the world. Rock Hudson spent three decades putting forth an image of a man that women desired and men emulated. The image was a pure heterosexuality, however, it was only an image, and it was inauthentic. But, in my opinion, it was not the fault of the actor. The team of agents and publicists had a hand, but also the American provincial mindset of the 1950a wouldn’t have allowed a homosexual actor to become such a huge celebrity. In actually, we see this same mindset even today. Rumors of Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Will Smith, Hugh Jackman, and Hayden Christian, whether they are true or not, require that these celebrities marry and bear children to assure their audiences of their heterosexuality.

In a Star Is Born, Judy Garland’s character Esther Blodgett becomes a celebrity (changing her name to Vicki Lester) after she meets her soon to be husband, Norman Maine, played by James Mason. The story shows the path of Esther/Vicki becoming a star, while Norman falls from celebrity due to alcoholism. She builds her image in Hollywood, and he destroys his by his public drunkenness. Much like Rock Hudson fell from Hollywood’s good graces when reporters wrote about “The Hunk Who Lived a Lie” and “The Master of Illusion,” (Meyer 279) in regard to Hudson’s diagnosis with HIV, Norman Maine fell from Hollywood’s good graces due to his addition.

Interesetingly, as life sometimes imitates art, Judy Garland was not the gal that we knew from films, but rather a sad and depressed soul who eventually died from a drug overdose. America lost two of it’s favorite celebrities this past year to drug addiction (Heath Ledger and Britany Murphy). Who would have known that the young knight from A Knight’s Tale and the guy who portrayed the confident Casanova would be, in actuality, so full of despair as to take his own life. In the end, we really never do know the character from the real life persona.

1) We only hear about the tragic cases of Hollywood actors when their addictions or lifestyles overcome them. How prevalent do you think publicity and market teams cover up the real people?

2) In a Star Is Born, do you think that Judy Garland’s character (either Ethel or Vicki) was authentic?

3) What would Rock Hudson’s career path have looked like had his homosexuality been verified in the 1950s?