I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be with someone famous.
Never mind actually being someone famous, that thought has always scared the beejebus out of me, because it would mean I couldn’t actually go anywhere normal like a restaurant or a grocery store, and have a private moment to myself in public to do something very ordinary for myself.
I’d like the fortune, but not the fame if that’s the package deal.
I’m talking as famous as Marilyn Monroe, or any other big name, A-List star of today.
Someone totally, utterly recognizable even when “incognito”.
(Maybe not this guy, but he COULD become famous from this blog, no?)
I was thinking about this as I read through a book that mentioned Marilyn Monroe a bit and how she helped popularized sexy pinup “CFM” (Come F*ck Me) shoes… (Read: Women from the Ankle Down).
It mentioned that everyone saw Marilyn as a sexy, untouchable Hollywood bombshell icon when in fact she was just someone who wanted to be loved for being her — Norma Jean Baker, not necessarily the persona of Marilyn Monroe she ended up having to play all the time (not that she hated it, but I suppose it became tiring after a while and she craved a bit of normal, private time).
Her second husband Joe DiMaggio was apparently very traditional and Italian, and expected her to stay at home and do traditional wifely duties, but it was just too hard because everywhere she went, she was Marilyn Monroe.
Not someone’s wife.
She was ogled all the time (not an easy thing for a husband to handle), and she herself had a desperate hunger and need to be loved by the public eye to substitute for her lack of a loving childhood, so she was always “on” to please people to obtain that love.
Marilyn tried to be his wife and do the things “normal” wives did back then, but she was too big of a star, which is why their marriage ended…. as did all of her others.
It made me think of how plenty of stars today, come up with their own onstage personas to try separate THEM from who they really are to the performer in them.
- David Bowie was Ziggy Stardust
- Dana Owens is Queen Latifah
- Sasha Fierce is Beyonce Knowles
- Shawn Carter is Jay-Z
- Stefani Germanotta is Lady Gaga
- Heather Sweet is Dita von Teese (Via)
Maybe they do it because they need to, otherwise their persona becomes who they are even if it isn’t the case.
So if these big name stars themselves have to try and reconcile who they are on stage versus who they are in real life, can you imagine being the spouse or partner of one?
Everywhere they go, they’re ogled, fantasized about, lavished special attention upon, and you as the partner hanger-on, are the one everyone is jealous, petty or even catty about.
“Why is he with HER? She’s not even hot.”
“Why is she with HIM? He’s a nobody.”
Maybe that’s why stars tend to date within their own circles of celebrity status. It becomes too difficult to try and be with someone normal because they won’t understand what it’s like to have so much attention heaped on them all the time and not crack.
Tiger Woods for example, cracked.
He had a string of (18 is the final count is it?) lovers, cheating on his lovely wife Elin. The fame and fortune was too much for him to handle, and he couldn’t stay faithful to her being tempted 24/7 by gorgeous women throwing themselves at him.
Stars date stars so that they can immediately understand what each other is going through, but to perhaps relieve their guilt about the unwanted intrusion into their partner’s lives, not to mention the comments.
I suppose it can also be hard to be the one who is always ignored, although you aren’t ignored and a “nobody” for long if you choose to try and brand yourself in the glow of your partner’s starlight and cash in on it, for lack of a better term.
(Thinking of Britney Spears and her dancer husband Kevin Federline right now.)
In a way, it’s a rather sad life.
Some people crave such celebrity (I clearly do not), and I wonder how those spouses who are not celebrities, handle all of that pressure from being with a celebrity without breaking.
