Arts & Entertainment

Britney: now just a news commodity?

By team ⋅ March 27, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Times, 1st February

When Tony Blair was running for Prime Minister in 2001, there was only one day when the Daily Star led the front page with politics: the day that Britney sent him signed photo with the message good luck. She was big then. She’s even bigger now, but for all the wrong reasons.

If you enter Britney into google, the search result comes back with 81,500,000 results. This can be compared to other well-known public figures: George Bush – 27,000,000. Tony Blair – 11,900,000. Justin Timberlake – 15,800,000. Even in the celebrity era, it reveals an extraordinary measure of fame.

There are some people who are so famous, so much the focus of media attention and public conversation, that the cease to be viewed as human beings. Britney seems to have joined them. Diana, Princess of Wales, was in the same league and even in death, as the current proceedings at the High Court shows, she remains there.