Why we love to catch a falling star

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily) Updated: 2014-04-04 07:16

Still photo from "Naked Wedding", starring actor Wen Zhang (R) and actress Yao Di (L). [Photo/icpress]

All three of these people are adults and their private lives have nothing to do with the public. The fact that Wen has been acting as a kind of role model is partly the fault of the public or his fan base. Acting is not built on morality; it is one's ability to make believe he or she can be someone else once the need arises. It is simply foolish to equate a role with the one who temporarily embodies it.

That said, actors who rely on the trick of deliberately blurring the line between actor and role should abide by his own rule. If you want the public to believe you're a paragon of morality, then stick to it or suffer the consequences.

In a cultural context, the increasing failures of fairy tale marriages in the entertainment industry indeed have an impact on social attitudes and values. Whenever a celebrity union unravels, those who perceived it as the embodiment of conjugal perfection are dealt a blow, gradually morphing them into cynics. The oft-repeated catchphrase, "I won't believe in love anymore", is a self-deprecating wisecrack that has truth at its core.

It's not a stretch to imagine that some will follow the lead of the erstwhile role models even in their foibles simply because they have revealed a vulnerability that makes them more human. There is also a palpable undertone of schadenfreude at the implosion of marquee names. If those perching atop pedestals cannot resist temptation and hold a marriage together, shouldn't we feel better about ourselves and our pedestrian lives?

Either way, stars in the entertainment galaxy are used as benchmarks against which the huddling masses can measure their own existence and its worth. It has all the trappings of a modern religion with the only exception that these are mere mortals whose unpredictability can interfere with our projection and faith. That's why a real saint had better be dead. For one thing, dead people do not commit adultery and can be molded into whatever shape the manipulator wants.

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