I'm not worried about the cult of celebrity being there, I'm worried that it's getting worse.
In the past, the womens mags carried major stories about royals to the exclusion of everything else. Princess Margaret was a "managed" royal, in other words she was controversial, but mostly beyond real criticism, as she was kept from the press (the isle of Mustique apart).
There was the occasional bit of tat about Liz Taylor, but PR people in those days were employed by big studios, not the stars themselves, and photographers were employed by specific mags. The deal was that if you went to town in a bad way on one star, the studio would block your paper's access to all the others.
Lady Di was the one who really pushed the stupidity boat out. independent paparazzi from the UK and Europe had started to realise that they could make huge money covering her alone. It all went to sh*t when she became engaged to Charles and it got worse until she tragically died. In fact it carried on well after that because of the manner of her death.
Now paparazzi, fluf and puff pieces, as well as C and D-list celebrity are facts of life. Womens mags abound in newsagents, there seem to be fifty times what there were in the 70s, and there is also the growing phenomenon of the feminization of TV.
Pick through the garbage on cable or prime time and think of how many TV programmes are aimed almost exclusively at women. Gardening makeovers, house makeovers, plastic surgery makeovers, Rosemary and Thyme, Midsomer Murders, Medium, the Hallmark channel, Dog Whisperer, John Edwards, Oprah, breakfast shows, and many more.
They're womens magazines in TV form. Each show (like the "lists" we mentioned earlier) is merely a traditional womens mag feature writ large and broadcast for half an hour.
I'm waiting for another corner of the womens magazines to be plundered and turned into a show.
How about "Spot The Difference" or "Odd Man Out"? remember those two almost identical pics where eight changes had been made from Pic 1?
I wonder what other traditional womens mag fare could be turned into TV? You can bet your boots the network execs are already doing it.
