Media

One of my favorite movies of all time is "African Queen" starring Katherine Hepburn and Humphry Bogart. Little did I know, when I first saw the movie, that Katherine Hepburn was Spencer Tracy's mistress for many years. Or that her brother killed himself while playing "make believe" with Katherine when they were young because they felt it was so real. Or that she didn't talk for months after his death, and her only escape was finding that make believe world once again in acting. Of course, all this really doesn't make me love her movies any more or less. I adore her art form, and although her life is intriguing, I enjoy her for what she presents on screen.
Thinking back to that time, there was not near the amount of paparazzi to capture all this gossip from her life that there would be now. Many actors' lives were kept much more private. What mattered was who they were on the screen and how beautiful they made life appear. While letting all guard down on stage and film, pouring their emotion into their fake lives, they could live less vulnerably off set, without being barraged by innumerable cameras.
Oh, how things have changed.
I had always thought that it was a "normal" happening for actors to be attacked by the media at all times. Because it is so rampant, I merely thought it was part of daily life for most actors, yet fifty years ago, this was not the case! There weren't 100 rag magazines telling you lies about every Hollywood marriage that was failing. It simply wasn't done.
Then it hit me. This is a sick addiction we have. We are obsessed with the people we know nothing about. How could this go on? We love the art people create, the stories they tell. Their faces are what we see. The characters they become entice us. They are beautiful, charismatic, and often brilliant. Yet, They are artists, not showcases. Why can't we embrace the stories they tell, and leave their lives a mystery? Must the author be read as much as the book?