I'm not faulting anyone who did look at the photos. We look at the bodies from Air France being fished out of the Atlantic, and because we don't have some kind of personal investment in them, as we might with a celeb, it doesn't seem indecent, only news. It's just not something I feel completely comfortable doing. Everyone draws that line in a different place, as conscience dictates.I think the big thing with David Carradine is that people expected the Kung Fu routine in real life. I sometimes imagine the poor man walking around with a pocket full of fortune cookies so that if some one stopped him on the street and asked him to 'say something zen' he'd have a response - "Life is a journey that takes you where you least expect, but it's up to you to take the steps". So it was a bit surprising that he wasn't Mr Zen, but liked a freaky good time. Many others are into that. It's just that people didn't expect Carradine to be one of them. It doesn't diminish him as an actor, or as a person.
Part of the whole interest in gossip (for me anyway) is to what extent are we being 'sold an image' about celebrities. We're being presented - most of the time - with a carefully crafted image that we are supposed to like and buy into. That way we will want to support our favorites by seeing their films. Meanwhile the real person is a carefully guarded secret. Rock Hudson is perhaps one of the best known cases of this.
So how is the real person different from the public image. Would people feel differently about their favorite actor/actress if they knew what they were really like? Will people detach the personal life from the professional life - ie "he was a good actor, his private life is none of my business"? How many other celebs are afraid of their personal side getting out? In this regard, the details of Carradine's life seem like fair game. Posting pictures of his death feels like crossing 'the decency line'.
Latest Gossip = Slap Egotists
