Six Lines

Privacy and Celebrity

Posted by Aaron Massey on 01 Jul 2010.

Penelope Trunk has come to some interesting conclusions about privacy and celebrity.

I am constantly telling people to get a strong career by managing their professional profile online. The way to a solid career is to be known for what you’re good at.

In other words: take advantage of your easy access to celebrity. Of course, being a celebrity impacts your privacy. It pays to know the rules of the game.

This is a great video, for example: Kate is with her sister, both are non-royals at an unofficial event, so it is, by law, considered her private life. On video, Kate asserts (in a relatively kind way) that she is not taking her hand from her face because “this is my private life.”

Once she says that, the photographers leave, because it is true that it’s private, and they have, officially, violated the law. (Still, William pressured Kate to sue, in an effort to keep the paparazzi in line. She won and gave the money to charity.)

Years ago, almost everyone had easy access to privacy and very little celebrity. The Internet is reversing this. Andy Warhol was not too far off when he said (in 1968 no less), “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”