Am I the only one who feel conflicted about celebrities doing this sort of thing?
Madonna, Ritchie visit slums of Mumbai
My first reaction is always, “that’s cool, she’s dragging the press to a place that needs help.” My second is always: what about the slums in the U.S.? My third: are celebrities genuinely interested in change, or do they want the world to see them in their beneficent glory?
I remember when Angelina Jolie did an interview from Africa when she was pregnant with her daughter. They made it out to seem like Angelina was using her celebrity to shed light on a third-world country in crisis when she could’ve been ensconced in her luxurious Malibu residence. And yet, she and Brad were holed up in a five-star resort in a country where they essentially ended freedom of the press for their own privacy.
I wonder if celebrities think about the poor struggling to survive in the U.S.? Do they not know that there are poor families and slums in the shadow of Hollywood and Beverly Hills? When I was at USC, all you had to was drive a few blocks south east and you’d see families with children living in primitive conditions, if not on the street. There were kids who didn’t go to school or get health care or a meal before they went to sleep. And not all of those kids had parents who were druggies.
Now I’m not one of those uber patriotic types. But I think we have to clean up our own backyard before we go solve everyone else’s problems.
Or is it just me who feels that way?