The media won't stop talking about Tiger Woods' statement today, so I have been giving it more thought.
Infidelity can occur in almost any married couple, and we in America don't stone people for this lapse. Tiger's big story comes on the heels of almost countless other sexual scandals involving public figures. I probably don't need to mention any, but John Edwards is another man who has been receiving a lot of attention for his affair. In a sense it's the couple's own business. But it seems that somehow, and inevitably, this little detail of a couple's business is a far different thing when it involves someone in the public eye.
And that's precisely the operative phrase—in the public eye. Two phenomena are acting together here: a very zealous media industry—particularly tabloid newspapers which in America are evidently getting to be like the infamous tabloids in Great Britain—and a cult of the celebrity which, as I have argued in another posting, goes back to the 1920s when Hollywood publicists started to create larger-than-life personae for Hollywood film stars. The result is that no one who attains celebrity status has much right to, or expectation of, privacy. I'm not really approving of this, but it's a fact of life for these men and woman. It's the price of celebrity that no one can, for a moment, believe he's not being watched. Whether it's Michael Phelps taking a puff on a bong, or Britain's Prince Harry doing his partying thing—you just have to be on your best behavior if you don't want to have your latest caper be the subject of headlines beside every supermarket checkout lane.
Poor Tiger is just sexually addicted. Well, he was a fool if he thought the news would never leak out. When you're the world's most famous athlete, you can't be a Tiger and a tomcat, too.
Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein
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It's very true that celebrities in the public eye aren't allowed privacy but there isn't anything new about that. Consider the way Princess Diana died or the way Jackie Kennedy O was stalked. I don't agree with the extent or means of media intrusions but I'm sure those who basque in the limelight know this comes with the territory. In some respects (as in the case of Charlie Sheen over the holidays) it's in a way good to get the scoop and come to grips that some of these folks perceived as bigger than life are still just people who have good and bad points like all the rest of us. From what I heard Charlie Sheen was coming across somewhat as had Robert Blake with his wife. I don't have a problem with someone in the public eye having to confront the fact that they have to abide by rules, graces, and cultural expectations as a cost for their high status. In the case of John Edwards, Bill Clinton, the Governor of South Carolina and other political figures their behaviour in the eyes of the public can and should be even more scrutinized since these individuals have been elected by the public as representative of the public. High profile individuals had either clean up their acts or expect to come away tarnished. It's as simple as that.
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