Celebrities and the stupid things they say: Do we hold them TOO accountable?

[LSN80]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not referring to our justice system, as it's essentially a disgrace. We've seen, in our lifetimes, how the Chris Brown's and Lindsay Lohan's of the world get second, third and fourth chances in areas where you and I, every day normal people, would not. If I had struck my wife in the way Chris Brown battered Rihanna, I'd likely still, and deservedly so, be in jail. As for Lohan, she got 30 days in jail, but served just five hours, due to overcrowding. We as individuals may display shock and outrage, but the legal system gives celebrities, more often than not, far too many chances then they deserve.

So is the lack of accountability from our justice system perhaps the reason we as individuals hold celebrities and politicians so accountable for the things that they say? Don't get me wrong, if one chooses a lifestyle or career that places them in the public eye, they deserve the scrutiny. But do we hold them too accountable for what they say, and when they display the behavior with words that show they are but human, are we too harsh?

I considered this listening to Pittsburgh Sports Radio on my way to work this morning, and while celebrating the Bucs first playoff win in 21 years after defeating Cincinatti 6-2(Lezzzzz go Bucs!), the discussion turned also to the Twitter feed of Dallas Latos, wife of Reds SP Matt Latos. Dallas Latos took to Twitter last night and early into this morning to discuss the poor treatment she received while attending the game by Pirates fans, including being punched in the head by a female fan. She sent out a dozen tweets, growing angrier by each, no doubt delighting and self-affirming fans who continued to razz her as the night progressed. So after reading her dozen-plus tweets she sent out over the course of the night, the first thought that came to my mind for me?

"Attention ****e who was only able to get off the pole because she married a rich athlete. She deserves what she got."

Suffice to say, my thoughts were those of some of those whom Dallas Latos was addressing when she tweeted:

'Ok. Now twitter people are making excuses for me getting assaulted. "I must have asked for it". You have to be kidding me.' Pretty sure all the ball-less nerds who made videos will be posting them on you tube soon.

If only for a moment, I was one of the 'ignorant Pittsburghers' who did make excuses for her being assaulted. Maybe she ran her mouth at the game in the same way she did on Twitter. However, running one's mouth should never be the reason someone has to file a police report for being assaulted. Some of my "favorites", from those who obviously believe she deserved it:

@Ty Giovizzi

shut up u gold digging ****e.. just take it,like u take it in the ass everynite by ******s

@Katar Speed

stop making false claims because your teams losing #butthurt

@WCHossman

The way I heard it was @DallasLatos was talking shit in the Bowtie bar and some ol’ yinzer mama taught her a lesson.

@Steelerman58

Hoss...rumor is she offered the guy a bj and the wife got mad and kicked her ass

If this were a mid-twenties, middle class woman who attended as a fan and was assaulted at a sporting event, many of those same people would be up in arms that security did such a poor job in protecting her, not blaming her, which was almost universally done. But because she's a former stripper that landed on Millionaire's Row as a D list celebrity, we're outraged at her instead. She didn't help her own cause with what she said, but she sure as hell didn't deserve it either.

Your thoughts on the Dallas Latos story, or how we perceive celebrities in such situations on the whole? Is there a correlation between our lax judicial system, and how we think of celebrities in situations such as these?

As an aside, what's the dumbest thing you've ever heard a celebrity or politician say, and what was your reaction? It can be dumb, funny or just plain ignorant, your call.

 

[Mustang Sally]

But do we hold them too accountable for what they say, and when they display the behavior with words that show they are but human, are we too harsh?

It's most likely elements of both. America loves it's celebrities; in fact, the whole world does....and attaches way too much importance to the things they utter in public, as if they are either words of wisdom so profound that we figure we'd better listen, even if they have no idea what they're talking about......or that the words are so stupid that we judge the celebrity entirely on a few misplaced statements, which isn't fair.

That their fans don't want them held accountable for the same misdeeds applicable to "regular" folks is unquestionable. I'm reminded of Paris Hilton being sent to jail for a month, and then released because she cried and said she didn't like it there. (she was later returned to the slammer after prison authorities got wind of it)

But she got out because she wasn't happy there? Huh?

I always figured jail was a place you're not supposed to like and the fear of punishment that you might be sent there should be a deterrent against doing whatever you did to merit it in the first place.

Instead, she was given a privilege regular folks wouldn't get. If you're ever sent to jail, tell the jailer you'd like to go home because you don't like it there.....see how far it gets you.

Yet, many people accepted Paris' release as a given. One woman asked: "Why would you want to punish such a wonderful person?" I found myself wondering how she knew Paris was so wonderful. She's rich, famous and glamorous, yes.......but her celebrity shouldn't shield her from having to answer for her two DUIs, as would any of us.

That celebrities get a better shake in courtrooms stems more from their being able to afford better representation than any of us could. It's ironic that the trend today is for celebrated people to hire the highest-priced, best attorneys money can buy.....and if the outcome is bad, the celebs sue the attorneys for incompetent representation. Tough rocks, Mr. Attorney.....it's win.....or else.

So, both sides of the question apply: celebrities are held too accountable for what they say....but it's more our own fault for expecting them to be any better or smarter than we are. At the same time, they often aren't held accountable enough when they do wrong. Even O.J. Simpson got away with murder in one of the worst moments in the American legal system I ever saw; one in which any of us would have been convicted with the exact same evidence. But, hey.....he was the Juice!


Meanwhile, the category of stupidest thing I ever heard a celebrity say would be topped by Mariah Carey. When King Hussein of JORDAN died, Mariah was asked at a press conference how she felt about it. She said it was a pity because "the man was the greatest basketball player ever."

 

[Slash-LN]

Isn't a stretch to call her a celebrity if all she did was marry a famous person?
In the age of social media even if she wasn't a player's wife I'm sure people would have made the same comments. I see stuff like this on YouTube all the time whenever I see videos about fans fighting at games and stuff. There are always comments about how one person or another deserved it.

There was the Riley Cooper thing. (NFL player who used the N word at a concert and was caught on video for those who don't follow sports.) If that was you or me it wouldn't have been a big deal at all. Hell some random person used it in one of the tweets you posted and it didn't turn into a national news story. Cooper didn't use the term during an interview or anything. If that had been the case I could see it being a big problem but otherwise it shouldn't have gotten as big as it was.

I get that by putting themselves in the spotlight they are held to a different standard. Like Rylan said though people are human. We all make mistakes. I believe in equal treatment regardless of who you are. We shouldn't hold them in any higher regard than we would hold anyone else. Just like I believe they shouldn't get special treatment.

If you can afford a great legal team then more power to you. Celebrity status shouldn't play into anything though.

I'm not going to lie and say I don't discuss these things when they're in the news though. At the same time if something happens locally and is in the news I discuss that with friends and stuff too so I kind of feel like it doesn't make me too much of a hypocrite.

I don't really remember quotes and stuff but I think Britney Spears once said something about how she gets to go to overseas places like Canada.

 

[LSN80]

Isn't a stretch to call her a celebrity if all she did was marry a famous person?

In the same context that Paris Hilton is a celebrity for making a sex tape and being a socialite, it's not a stretch. Fame by association is incredibly rampant in the American culture.

In the age of social media even if she wasn't a player's wife I'm sure people would have made the same comments. I see stuff like this on YouTube all the time whenever I see videos about fans fighting at games and stuff. There are always comments about how one person or another deserved it.

You're always going to have ignorance, especially with regards to a woman. Wrong as the mindset is, it truly(and sadly) upsets some men that women get a free pass, and the fact that even if they started the confrontation, it's taboo for a man to put his hands on a woman. As it should be. So often times, this ignorance is shown in those people who make comments, but in general, there's back and forth discourse. Some critical of the person attacked, others supportive.

I'd almost guarantee, using my life savings as collateral, that it was Dallas Latos' attitude on Twitter, such as calling those who recorded the incident, and Pirates security, "ball-less", that lead to the mostly universal attitude towards her that she "deserved it."

And maybe, as the one Twitter handler said, she was talking sh*t. That still doesn't make attacking that person physically justifiable.

There was the Riley Cooper thing. (NFL player who used the N word at a concert and was caught on video for those who don't follow sports.) If that was you or me it wouldn't have been a big deal at all. Hell some random person used it in one of the tweets you posted and it didn't turn into a national news story. Cooper didn't use the term during an interview or anything. If that had been the case I could see it being a big problem but otherwise it shouldn't have gotten as big as it was.

I agree, to some degree. Should all people be held to the same level of accountability? Yes, and no. If a friend of mine were to call a black man a "******", I wouldn't let it go, I'd confront them. But that' where it ends. Is it unfortunate that Cooper was caught on camera? Yeah, especially since his teammates attested that he's not racist, and it was an "in the moment" situation.

But as a professional on television, a celebrity of sorts, there is a higher standard. Were you or I to say it, we're representing ourselves. Riley Cooper was representing himself and the Philadelphia Eagles in these situations, and thus, accountability is higher.

I get that by putting themselves in the spotlight they are held to a different standard. Like Rylan said though people are human. We all make mistakes. I believe in equal treatment regardless of who you are. We shouldn't hold them in any higher regard than we would hold anyone else. Just like I believe they shouldn't get special treatment.

Imagine what the world would be like if we didn't expect more from athletes and celebrities. Should we idolize them? No. Should they receive the same treatment from their "equals" people on Twitter and Facebook like you and I? Yes.

But as representatives for major sports organizations, athletes have to be held to a higher standard, responsibility-wise. Just as I, as a therapist, would not only risk jail, but also my livelihood if I drank, drove and was pulled over. And it's certainly no slight, but I doubt a cashier at Burger King would suffer the same consequences.

I hate quoting movies, but Peter Parker's uncle and his words to him ring true.
"With great power comes great responsibility."

Both my job and that of a football player put us in places of responsibility. And because of that responsibility, public accountability should be higher. Even if we are all "only human."

Celebrity status shouldn't play into anything though.

Agreed. The laws for you and I should be the same laws for the Chris Brown's and Rihanna's of the world.

I'm not going to lie and say I don't discuss these things when they're in the news though. At the same time if something happens locally and is in the news I discuss that with friends and stuff too so I kind of feel like it doesn't make me too much of a hypocrite.

We all do, and it doesn't make you a hypocrite, it makes you human.

I don't really remember quotes and stuff but I think Britney Spears once said something about how she gets to go to overseas places like Canada.

That's the gist of what was said, correct. As for me, it's this gem, and like Sally's, mine also comes from Mariah Carey:

" Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.”

It earned her endless ridicule for some time, and regardless of how selfish and asinine it may be, at least she was honest.

 

[Nate DaMac]

You don't know very many criminals do you? Guess that's not a bad thing, if true, but it kind of has you believing things about our current justice system that simply aren't true. If you struck your wife the way Chris Brown struck Rhianna, you wouldn't be in jail right now. You, like Chris Brown, probably would have only seen the inside of a holding cell given you had a few hundred bucks for bail and had no priors. You'd to take a class or two and get a few years of probation, just like he did. It also isn't uncommon for people with short sentences to get let out early due to over-crowding. Non-violent offenders are always the first to get out when there's a population problem. These people aren't given leeway due tot their status as often as you'd think, it's actually par for the course with everyone.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've found that, a good deal of the time and depending upon the person, there seem to be extremes when it comes to issues of celebrity involvement. Some people will look for any excuse to defend or trash a celebrity whenever the opportunity rises. These supporters or haters will be support their positions and opinions no matter what.

In various aspects of life, celebrities do often get special treatment denied to the vast majority of everyone else. A lot of people resent it and, most of the time, that resentment is justified in my opinion. In the United States, celebrities are probably the closest thing we have to "royalty" and while the whole class system is supposed to be a thing of the past, it really isn't when it comes down to fame and/or fortune. If you have one or both of them, you're sometimes perceived as being a "better" class of person because of it. Hence, you get special treatment. As I alluded to, it's natural for people to resent it because fame and material wealth equaling superiority in terms of worth as a human being goes directly against the foundation of the United States as a society. When you look at the justice system's treatment of celebrities, it only reinforces the resentment some feel and, again, it's often justified in my eyes. We see instances of celebrities who have legal troubles being given chance after chance after chance while continuing to fuck up. Sometimes, because of resentment someone might bear towards a celebrity or celebrities in general based on personal experience, news stories regarding controversial incidents, news stories on improper behavior, etc. and the result can be a broad generalization.

In the story presented in the OP, I think it's something of an example of that generalization being applied by some and some simply seeing it as simply okay based on the circumstances. Dallas Latos was physically assaulted and there's no justification for it. Being the wife of a player on the opposing team is sure as shit no excuse and had she been just another person in the crowd, I doubt she'd get such treatment. Which, also, I doubt she'd have gotten anywhere near this sort of attention and that's part of it. Because she's married to a celebrity, that kinda sorta makes her a celebrity as well. And this celebrity works for a rival sports organization, which somehow translates into her being subpar as far as an example of humanity goes. If someone was just talking some smack to her, that's one thing. You have to expect that from passionate sports fans and if you can't take that, then maybe you need to work on toughening yourself up. If she instigated it by putting her hands on someone else, then it's on her because she should've kept her hands to herself. But assault just because of who her hubby is and what team he plays for is something different. Your right to be an ass to someone stops at that person's nose if they don't put their hands on you.