Celebrity Arrogance

An unusual subject for praise this week: Malawi.

On a recent trip to Malawi, the pop singer Madonna was stripped of her VIP status on her way out of the country, along with her entourage. Heavens forfend, they had to line up with other passengers and were frisked by security officials! Madonna was seemingly annoyed by this reluctance to treat her like a millionaire celebrity. I say ‘seemingly’ because Madonna has since denied her arrogant behaviour, but personally I prefer to believe the political integrity of Malawian President Joyce Banda. She was quoted as saying that Madonna wanted Malawi “to be forever chained to the obligation of gratitude” for Madonna’s charitable contributions to the country (Malawi is where Madonna adopted her two children from, because American kids apparently weren’t good enough!).

Banda went on to say, “Granted, Madonna is a famed international musician. But that does not impose an injunction of obligation on any government under whose territory Madonna finds herself, including Malawi, to give her state treatment. Such treatment, even if she deserved it, is discretionary not obligatory … Among the many things that Madonna needs to learn as a matter of urgency is the decency of telling the truth. For her to tell the whole world that she is building schools in Malawi when she has actually only contributed to the construction of classrooms is not compatible with manners of someone who thinks she deserves to be revered with state grandeur.” Also, the President said that Madonna was “a musician who desperately thinks she must generate recognition by bullying state officials instead of playing decent music on the stage.”

Finally a country is standing up to the unprincipled status of pampered celebrities. Excellent work, President Banda. But let’s hope that Malawi doesn’t release a comedy pop song opposing Madonna, otherwise the BBC might feel compelled to ban it! In case anybody doesn’t get that reference, the legacy of Thatcher is censorship!

Lookalike

I don't usually write simple jokes on my blog, but I wish to point out that BBC rugby presenter John Inverdale bears a bizarre resemblance to the character Calibos from the original 'Clash Of The Titans' film. Judge for yourself.

Simply Class

The BBC drama ‘The Shadow Line’ has just finished being broadcast and, for me, has to be one of the best dramas in the last decade. Granted, I haven’t quite pieced all of the details together yet (and probably won’t until I watch it again on DVD!), and some of the morality is deliberately ambiguous (if not a little perturbing at times), but the slick style, gradual tempo, enthralling direction, absorbing characters, clever script, shocking storylines and terrific acting made it a joy to watch. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes their drama to be intelligent, based on dialogue and characterisation, rather than special effects, exaggerated action sequences and explosions. And I must say it does feel nice to have something good to report for a change.

Slightly scary scientology

Last night on a BBC Panorama documentary, many of the negative aspects of religion were demonstrated. Tommy Davis, a head figure in the scientology movement (that's right, the organisation which celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta try to convince us is A-okay), effectively stalked and intimidated a BBC journalist. Davis would participate in haranguing the interviewer if the current interviewee was known to harbour opinions which were unfavourable to scientology, attacking the journalist with a Nazi-type conversational style - interrupting and talking over his opposition, then storming away before a response could be delivered. It made Davis look like a childish control freak at best, and a dictatorial monster at worst. Other figures in the scientology movement (including celebrities) were initially willing to take part in the documentary, but then pulled out if the wrong questions were asked. I understand that media reports can never be entirely objective and that a longer documentary than half an hour to explore all of the facts in depth would have been an improvement; but there's no doubt in my mind that scientology - and certainly Tommy Davis - has anything ranging from deep insecurity issues to ideas of world domination! The only thing I would really agree with them on is that if so many people do believe in the principles of scientology (and there are many in America), then it has just as much right to call itself a religion than any other organised group of worshippers; it shouldn't really be labelled as a cult anymore. It's just a really fucked up religion!
As with all religions, the need to belong somewhere and to feel that you're special does not give anybody a 'God-given' right to tell anybody else what to do. I wouldn't dream of indiscriminately confronting a scientologist in an attempt to rip their beliefs to pieces (even though I probably could), and yet I wonder after the bizarre behaviour I saw last night whether I'll wake up tomorrow morning to find that my binbags have been raided and a strange darkened vehicle is following me!. Let's hope so, I could do with some excitement to write about in my next blog!