For some mysterious reason, Daily Caller reporter Leena Nasir felt compelled to attack Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson for her statements regarding fans who approach her when she is in public but not in a performing capacity.
“Scarlett Johansson put her arrogance on full display by issuing an unhinged statement about her celebrity status,” the indignant writer declared in an “Editorial.” “Clearly setting her bar as low as it can go, she casually blurted the selfish comments during the interview for her In Style cover story,” Nasir continued. “Johansson launched into a self-indulgent display of arrogance…I don’t think Johansson has a lot to worry about anymore. The people who did follow her career have likely just been turned away. It’s hard to imagine fans will care much about her anymore.”
Wow, two uses of “anymore” within three sentences. When I do that, I sentence myself to remedial writing exercises.
But back to Scarlett: what did the acclaimed actress tell the interviewer to justify such enmity from The Daily Caller? This:
“I always say to people, ‘I’m not working.’ I don’t want to be identified as being in this time and place with you. I’m doing my own thing. It really offends a lot of people,” she admitted. It doesn’t mean I’m not appreciative, of course, that people are fans, or happy to see me. I like to be in my own thoughts that have nothing to do with what other people think of me”
Nasir sniffs that Johansson is “seemingly unaware of the career choice she made.” Oh, garbage: Nasir is unaware of what performers owe to the public and what the public owes to performers.
In the interview Johansson said that she poses with fans and gives autographs at events, meaning, when she is working. Celebrities and performers, like politicians, elected officials, sports figures, and TV news personalities, have the same rights as anyone else to enjoy private time with their families, friends, or their own thoughts. A clearer case of when the Golden Rule rules would be hard to find. Would you like being accosted in public by strangers and begged for attention, photographs and autographs? Ethically, I expect celebrities to be polite when they tell intruders that they do not want to be disturbed (unlike, say, Alec Baldwin and other jerks who have shown a proclivity to attack such fans) but I also expect the expectant fan to be understanding and accommodating when they are politely told, “Buzz off.”
As someone who lives in the D.C. area and often had business in New York, I have encountered many celebrities of various wattage. If they were not with someone and appeared to be alone and unengaged in any task or activity, I have occasionally, though rarely, approached them and told them that I admired their work. I met actor and child performer advocate Paul Petersen that way, and we developed a friendship that has lasted 20 years. Most of the time, however, I leave the celebrity alone. Examples: Newt Gingrich, Rip Torn, Mary Tyler Moore, Hulk Hogan, Raven-Symone, Charles Rangel, Tony Conigliaro (Sigh!), “Professor” Irwin Corey, Art Garfunkle. I approached Bill Bennett to tell him that I admired one of his books, and we got into a lively conversation about ethics. I went up to Senator Alan Simpson in an airport to remind him that he had said something to me when we were next to each other at a Chamber of Commerce lunch event years before and that it had made a big impression on me, and he seemed genuinely pleased. (I begged my mother not to interrupt Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder when he was dining at a table next to us in a D.C. restaurant, but she went over to him, introduced herself in Greek, and he engaged her in a conversation, all in Greek, and seemed to get a kick out of it. “See?” said Mom. “I knew he was a good Greek boy!”) I would never ask a celebrity for a photo, and only once have I asked a performer for an autograph (Lauren Holly), under unusual circumstances too complicated to relate here.
The ethics verdict is that Scarlett Johansson is quite right to insist that she is not obligated to submit to every whim of star-struck fans unless she is on the job. As a lover of movies and the performing arts, I expect only one thing from her or any other artist: entertain me, and make my time spent experiencing your talents worth the commitment. That’s all.
No one has a right to any more.
Ethics Alarms 
Robert Heinlein’s first (unpublished until long after his death) novel, “For us the living” has a great theme regarding how a person has a public and private sphere. A performer has a very public life, consisting of all the things that are involved with his or her career. However, there also exists a marked division between the private person and the public persona that was not violated. It has other interesting ideas and is worth a read.
Today’s society doesn’t see distinctions between the two if there’s any way to use one against the other.
“I would never ask a celebrity for a photo, and only once have I asked a performer for an autograph (Lauren Holly), under unusual circumstances too complicated to relate here.”
I remember that story. I hope the young lady to whom you gave the autograph still has and cherishes it. Your approach was creative.
I read the interview with Scarlett yesterday and I approve. I am attending a convention this weekend at which a number of guests will be appearing. This is another example of what is considered a celebrity working.
I’ve never seen one out in the wild, so to speak. If I did, I would hope that I would exercise common sense and leave that person alone.
I’m glad that story made an impression: I don’t recall the context in which I related it. It does make me smile that Holly was amused by my ploy: I think she was also flattered that I knew who she was by name and despite the disguise. Poor Lauren never quite made it to the A-list.
A very appropriate context…how to behave when encountering celebrities in public.
https://ethicsalarms.com/2012/01/25/celebrity-encounter-ethics/
I am often perplexed by the concept of fandom. Does sidling up to someone who is in the movies or sports and engaging in a conversation with them make you feel like you are part of their inner circle? I still cannot fathom how the Beatles could turn teenage girls into emotional jelly when they performed. Are we so starved for acceptance that we need to feel as if we are connected to well known people by injecting ourselves into their private time or even their “working time”? I really do not know what possesses people to want to engage people they do not know personally simply because they are a celebrity. The same people would not act that way with some unknown character that passes them by. I just cannot put my finger on what value they derive from wanting to engage a celebrity. I understand why people often buy branded products this makes no sense to me.
Sure, I can see telling someone you loved their book or performance but that could just be coupled with a simple “good afternoon or other statement you might say to anyone you pass by. Unless you are complimenting their work I see very little reason to bother them. In simple terms, if you cannot give some articulable value to the the subject in question, the subject should be left alone.
I met Brooks Robinson at a youth breakfast once in1967 and I honestly did not feel like he owed me anything more than giving me an opportunity to thank him for helping us win the world series in 66. Curt Blefary spoke to our school assembly around that time and we were instructed to refer to him as Mister Blefary and not Curt as we might sitting in the stands at Memorial Stadium. Maybe I feel this way because sports then seemed to be played by our neighbors and not celebrities. Robinson and Palmer lived not far from me and neither did Unitas, Berry, or Donavan.
And they worked jobs in the off season to support their families.
“Are we so starved for acceptance that we need to feel as if we are connected to“
Chris Rock says it best: “We used to want love, now we just want likes”
“Unitas, Berry, or Donavan.”
If you’re talking about Art Donovan, the guy was (IMO) a certifiable hoot!
PWS
Art Donovan owned a liquor store where we we catch a bus in the summer to go swimming. We would see him occasionally and he would say hello to which we would reply in kind. That was about as far as it would go.
Fox News is jumping on the bandwagon trashing Scarlett. This is cognitive dissonance scale bias: Hollywood types are woke assholes, see, so that means that a famous actress has no right to be left alone when she’s in public.
My favorite celebrity interaction: In 1973, I was having breakfast with a dear, very sweet and cute, college friend, Joan Farber, in a Manhattan deli one Sunday morning. Joan leaned across the table and whispered, “Don’t turn and look, but my most favorite person in the world is sitting behind you.” I turned around, of course, and there was Henny Youngman having breakfast. “Joan,” I said, “you have to ask him for his autograph. Coming from you, he’ll love it.” She demurred for a while, but I gave her a pen and a napkin, and she walked over to his table. “Mr. Youngman,” she said, I’m sorry to bother you, but you’re my most favorite comedian….” Before she could get any further, he held up both his hands and waved off the pen and napkin. “Wait a minute,” he said, reaching into his suit coat’s breast pocket, “let me give you a small check.” Joan cracked up as Henny Youngman pulled out a three-fifths-sized check book, opened it on the table, made a big deal of signing one of the checks, tore it out of the check book, and handed it to her with a flourish. Joan giggled, thanked him profusely, returned to our table and showed me the check. Where the issuing bank’s info would have appeared, the “check” said, “Drawn on the Banks of the Hudson.”
Steve Martin hands out pre-signed business-style cards that read, “This certifies that you have had a personal encounter with me and that you found me warm, polite, intelligent and funny.”
That sounds like Martin. I’m sure thee are celebrities like the soap opera star played by Sally Fields in “Soapdish” who went to the mall to be smothered by fans when she was feeling depressed.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a Steve Martin fan. I just don’t “get” him. Never have. Henny’s shtick was not a brush off at all. He was brief with Joan, but he fully engaged her for that moment, and I thought he was gracious. And funny.
Working in backstage production for over a decade, I’ve had many famous people (and bands) in my car: from Toby Keith to Johnny Depp (who called me “love” in his Captain Jack Sparrow accent. I was almost star struck. Almost.) I’ve watched artists hang with family and friends, workout, throw a baseball back and forth, etc. I watched the country artist Sam Hunt walk down the hall, fresh from the shower, in nothing but a towel. (I was star struck.)
I’ve done their laundry and their grocery shopping. I’ve taken them to the golf course and the pharmacy. Most are incredibly polite. Some are a little more difficult. But it is our job to make sure the artists have an easy, relaxed day and that there’s never a moment in which they have to feel “on” before they actually take the stage. The feedback we get from artist management is that we are among the most professional and polite festival crew in the country.
Job done.
Exactly.
Geddy Lee from Rush has an interesting take on stardom and fan behavior. Apparently, Rush was touring in Europe and after a show in Germany, Lee saw a group Milan, Italy Rushinati waiting to meet the band. He avoided the scene but spent the next few days worrying that a core group of the Rushinati, traveling long distances, may have been dismissed as encroaching on his time. He vowed never to do that again. From my interactions with him and Lifeson, they understand their stardom comes with certain unpleasantries but as long as the fans are respectful, they will engage with them and hopefully make their fans’ days.
I had an interesting experience one afternoon. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top came into our offices to meet a financial planner guy. I saw him sitting in the lobby and recognized him. I mean, who couldn’t/wouldn’t recognize a tall, skinny bearded fellow wearing a dredlock cap? I thought, “he is sitting by himself, so I won’t bother him.” However, he looked up at me, and nodded. I responded:
Me: “Reverend. How are you?”
BG: (Looking at me curiously) “Fine. You?”
Me: “Very well, indeed. Reverend, how’s Pearl?”
BG: (Realizing I knew a bit more about him than normal), “She’s just fine.”
Me: “Great. Tell her I said ‘Hello.'”
BG: (Chuckling), “Will do. Have a nice day.”
Me: “Take care.”
And I left. If one wonders about “reverend”, Gibbons and his friends used to sell “salvation” along the Texas border in the 1960s for a brief period. He acquired the “reverend” moniker because he adopted the Southern preacher affectation while doing so. Apparently, he was quite good and he and his buddies made decent money. “Pearl” is a reference to his sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (the proverbial Holy Grail of Les Pauls). As the Reverend tells the story,
Gibbons had loaned an aspiring actress a 1939 Packard automobile that he collectively owned with some friends so that she could drive from Houston to Hollywood for a screen test.
“We didn’t think the car would make it past El Paso,” Billy says. “But it brought her all the way to Hollywood, and she got the part. We figured the car must have divine connections, so we named it Pearly Gates. Meanwhile, she called and said, ‘Should I send the car back or sell it?’ We said, ‘Sell it!’ She did, and my portion of the settlement arrived the very day I drove out to see the rancher.” (Ed. Note: He used the $250 he received from the car’s sale to buy the guitar from a rancher outsider of Houston).
And so the name Pearly Gates, with all its attendant magic, was transferred to the guitar, which was in mint condition when Billy obtained it. “It still had the original set of flatwound strings from the Gibson factory on it,” Billy marvels.
“Plus an extra set of Black Diamond flat wounds in the case. I still got ’em. Also in the case was a love note, which we also still have, from a girlfriend of the original owner. She said, ‘I like what you do. Meet me later. You might like what I can do.’”
I kind of hope that little interaction was pleasing to him. Instead of fawning over him, I simply told him I knew who he was and some of his history. I did not ask for an autograph or anything, hopefully respecting his privacy (well, somewhat).
jvb
Great pile of stories, John.
I’ve met quite a few celebrities, in part, because I worked at a very famous bookstore where celebs like Matt Groening, Barry Manilow, Gwen Stefani, Diane Lane and her hubby Josh Brolin, Michelle Williams, Lou Ferrigno, and so many more came through. Most staff played it cool, and my wife even got shake the hand of Lou Ferrigno & Barry Manilow (he’s tall!) and got Diane Lane to sign a picture of herself. Lane signed it, “Stay gold.”
I had the misfortune of meeting Hank Williams III who was very dismissive though I could care less who he was (I’m a Hank II fan personally). I did get really excited to meet singer Sarah MacLachlan who was shopping on her off time in town. Understanding that celebs need privacy, I asked a security guard of hers if I could say hi. I was given permission then then like an idiot fawned all over her.
My best celebrity experience was meeting Harry Belafonte. He and a companion were seated next to me and a date at a nice restaurant. I really wanted to say hi, but my date and I decided to leave the man alone to eat. To our surprise he started a conversation with us. He was polite and engaging. Back at the time smoking was still allowed in restaurants and sadly I was then a smoker. When I lit up a cigarette, Harry looked at me and said, “you’re too beautiful to smoke.” I quit the next day.
The lesson here is if your leave celebrities alone sometimes, they may engage with you by choice. And having choice often makes for the most fulfilling experiences, unless it’s Hank Williams III.