Hollywood: The Good, The Bad & Why Celebrities Feel the Need to "Leave" It

Why do celebrities constantly need to “leave” Hollywood? What's so bad about being famous and adored by an international audience? The millions of dollars in the bank? The McMansions? Beverly Hills? The Starbucks and the Chanel? Something, apparently, because a lot of celebrities want to distance themselves from their fame.

Whether it’s Justin Bieber's recent move away from LA to the Atlanta spaceship house or Miley Cyrus telling W magazine that she rarely leaves the confines of her Hollywood Hills mansion, there seems to be a recent trend of celebrities publicly retreating from the Hollywood spotlight. The push-pull relationship between celebrities and their stomping ground can be hard to understand or feel sympathy for. These people are famous, rich and living some of the most privileged lives in the entire world. You'd think they could show a little appreciation. But no, most famous people struggle with fame at some point in their career and can be found complaining to magazines about the lack of privacy, the gruelling work schedule and the unwanted attention. But without Hollywood and all it stands for (fame, fortune and fans) where would these celebrities be? It seems to be a black and white dichotomy: celebrities either gripe about wanting to be able to sing or act without having their every move publicly documented or they're the ones tipping off the paparazzi to let them know they're at The Grove fully made up with a Starbucks in hand. There is no question: without fans famous people wouldn’t be able to do what they do. If no one watched the movies, TV shows and listened to pop music there would be no Hollywood. If we, the public, lost interest in celebrity culture the famous people would stop making millions and wouldn't have the "problem" of being famous anymore. The thing is, fans want paparazzi photos, the celebrity instagram and twitter accounts, TMZ and reality TV shows. We love having a window into the lives of the rich and famous because we love to imagine ourselves being the ones riding through the Hills in a Range Rover.

The Infamous Britney Spears & K-Fed in their Range Rover
Source: Photo Shelter/Google Images

Most recently, Alec Baldwin has decided to step out of the public eye. How did he go about doing this? By looking dashing on the cover of New York Magazine and writing a 5,300 word essay, of course. Alec Baldwin is a fan favourite; I loved him in 30 Rock and It’s Complicated and recently saw him in To Rome with Love. There is no question; he is a well-known and respected actor. But, we also remember the horrible voice mail that went public in which the world heard him berating his daughter and calling her a pig. I know I for one won’t forget that or forgive him for it. Can we separate a potentially awful human being from an amazing, natural acting talent? Can the two exist simultaneously or should he be shunned for his behaviour? Does he get to choose to leave the lime light and stop talking to the media? Will the paparazzi say "hey, jeeze, this guy wants to be left alone" or will they start targeting him ever more now because the photos will be harder to get (and hence more valuable to tabloids)? As they pointed out on Monday’s episode of the Canadian talk show The Social Baldwin’s wife was a media correspondent before they were married and she regularly instagrams photos of herself doing yoga poses around New York City. Will she end this attention seeking behaviour and retreat from the public eye too or is this just Alec Baldwin's thing?

Source: Vulture/NY Mag

Interestingly, Baldwin stepping out of the lime light comes right on the heels of his “nemesis” Shia Labeouf’s equally public regression from fame. Baldwin and Labeouf were set to appear together on the Broadway show Orphans but “Labeouf abruptly quit … due to “creative differences” (that is, he couldn’t get along with Alec Baldwin, according to reports)” (TIME). Labeouf then tweeted a photo of his e-mail apology to the cast and crew. And so, the first online documentation of Labeouf's rampant plgarism was born: the e-mail was copied directly from Esquire’s article “What is a Man” (Eqsuire). 

After the Esquire article, the public realized that Lebeouf is a bit of a plagiarism expert. Fans pointed out that he plagiarised his directorial debut HarryCantour.com, which was screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, as it is an almost direct representation of a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. Unfortunately, embarassingly, he then also plagiarised his apology about the Clowes plagiarism from Yahoo answers tweeting: “copying isn't particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work“ which can be compared to the yahoo answer “merely copying isn’t particularly creative work, though it’s useful as training and practise. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work“. He then tweeted more apologies derived from apologies of other famous people including Tiger Woods, Kanye West and Mark Zuckerburg (see the full list and a comprehensive breakdown of Labeouf’s plagiarism on TIME website). Labeouf then wore a bag over his head on the red carpet that said “I Am Not Famous” (reminding people of Sia’s Billboard cover also pointed out in the TIME article). At this time he also started walking out of press conferences.

Source: NY Daily News

Labeouf started tweeting “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE” every day for a month in conjunction with a performance art/apology session called #iamsorry in LA where “people are told to choose an object from a selection that includes a whip, Transformers toys, Hershey's Kisses, a pair of pliers and a bowl of notes containing Twitter comments about LaBeouf” (NY Daily News) before sitting directly across from him where he is apparently seen crying and wearing the bag over his head. This of course is reminiscent of Marina Abramovic's famous performance piece The Artist is Present. All of this behaviour also reminds us of Joaquin Pheonix’s erratic public behaviour and performance art for the film I’m Still Here. I Am Still Here commented on some of the complexities and negativities of fame. It’s still up in the air as to whether Labeouf is having a very public breakdown or is doing all of this as performance art. James Franco thinks it's a little bit of both and wrote about it very eloquently in an essay for The New York Times (The New York Times). 

No matter what side you find yourself on, it’s a fact that Labeouf has spent most of his life in the spotlight and may be a product of "child star syndrome". This doesn't excuse his behaviour or plagiarism, but it does explain why he may not be that different from other struggling child stars like Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohan or Macaulay Culkin. Labeouf has made a successful transition from child star to adult actor, something many young stars struggle to do, and up until this point has seemed to be fairly well acclimatized to fame. Labeouf had a very rough family life growing up (his deeply troubled father reportedly once put a gun to his son's head) and he has overcome his past to accomplish a lot for himself. Does this information make us feel sympathy for him or do we simply expect more from him as a functioning adult? Do we accept his apologies? Would we allow him to retreat from fame like Baldwin wants to do? What if he wasn't a actor but an author or painter... how would the conversation change?

Personally, I’m torn. I respect art for art’s sake and understand where James Franco is coming from in his essay. I studied performance art and appropriation in Art History. I respect that people like Jay Z don’t want paparazzi photographing their daughters. I also respect celebrities like the Kardashains who not only handle fame but love it and use it to their advantage. Maybe Hollywood is corrupt and awful to live with, but certain celebrities seem to live out of the spotlight more successfully than others. Where you live, where you go, what you do and who you hang out with, just like our very normal lives, will directly impact your notoriety as a person. The levels of fame and paparazzi shots that celebrities deal with on the day to day is a direct representation of the lives they live. Maybe Baldwin and Labeouf should retreat from the public eye but if they do I hope they're willing to give up fame altogether and pass the torch on to the next young aspiring actor.