NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

<i>Paul Thomas</i>: Duped by celebrity dream

By Paul Thomas
NZ Herald·
12 Sep, 2008 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Opinion by Paul ThomasLearn more

KEY POINTS:

As a British newspaper put it, her rise from small-town girl to global icon demonstrates "the endless possibilities of the American Dream".

She's a source of widespread fascination, an inspiration to those whose horizons mightn't otherwise extend beyond the outskirts of their insular communities, a reminder that ordinary
people can achieve extraordinary things.

She is, of course, Britney Spears, the pop princess who this week completed an amazing comeback from the brink of self-destruction by getting through a brief public appearance without making a spectacle of herself.

Some even described it as a "resurrection," although comparing her largely self-inflicted woes with the crucifixion seems a bit of a stretch.

Sarah Palin's narrative is less dramatic, being (thus far at least) all rise and no fall, but in the blink of an eye she has joined Britney in the vanguard of celebrity culture.

Perhaps the greatest irony of this irony-rich election campaign is that within weeks of the Republicans portraying Barack Obama as a political Britney Spears, a glamorous but vacuous star, they themselves are running on celebrity power.

It's Palin, not Obama, who's the Britney in this race, the candidate who's famous for being famous, the empty vessel who can be reconfigured to suit the vagaries of the market/electorate and the commercial/political imperatives of her backers.

A distinguishing feature of celebrity culture is the discrepancy between fame and achievement. Formerly mayor of a large village, Palin has been governor of a sparsely populated backwater since late 2006.

Her launch-pad was her speech at the Republican Convention, a standard hatchet job delivered with gusto but devoid of substance.

A political speech like many others then, so why the gushing praise? Because another distinguishing feature of celebrity culture is the compulsion to invest everything the star does with significance and distinction, even when it's banal or mediocre.

Nothing bears this out better than the life and work of Andy Warhol, a seminal figure in both pop and celebrity culture. In 2006 one of Warhol's Campbell's Soup can paintings fetched $17.6 million.

Palin's boosters will go to extraordinary lengths to inflate her modest CV.

Take this from the Daily Telegraph: "The first myth is that she is a political neophyte who has come from nowhere. In fact, she and her husband have for decades run a company in the highly political commercial fishing industry, where holding onto a licence requires considerable nous and skill."

Well, if she can wrap Alaskan fisheries officials around her little finger, dealing with Putin and Ahmadinejad should be a doddle. And if you're confused by that reference to decades, I can confirm that Palin is only 44.

Obama hardly has a bulging resume either but at least he got where he is today the hard way - by overcoming a heavyweight opponent in the most ferociously contested primary series in recent history.

Palin was shoulder-tapped by John McCain and even then by default, after his first and second choices were vetoed for being unsound on abortion.

Celebrity makes its own rules. In the Lewinsky affair Bill Clinton, who disconcertingly morphed from President to celebrity as the mood took him, was held to lower standards of behaviour and accountability than most middle managers.

Palin has been elevated to the forefront of national - and potentially international - affairs with a haste and lack of scrutiny that no decent-sized government department or company would contemplate.

She also benefits from the tendency to discount celebrities' eccentricities or downright nuttiness on the basis that it goes with the territory. Thus Madonna's star is undimmed by her enthusiastic membership of a cult that ascribes protective powers to a piece of red string worn around the wrist.

For her part Palin believes that life commenced 5000 years ago when God created the world in six days and cleaned his fingernails on the seventh.

Insofar as one can be bothered responding to wilful ignorance, it's worth pointing out that to hold this belief requires the dismissal of a mountain of hard evidence and the rejection of the principle that rational inquiry leads to objective knowledge which has underpinned Western civilisation since the Enlightenment.

She also believes that America is doing God's work in Iraq, which makes her as militantly monotheistic as Richard the Lionheart and Osama bin Laden.

Celebrity is make-believe. And as Bruce Springsteen reminds us in his bleakly allegorical song Magic, illusionists depend on a supply of eager dupes: "I got a shiny saw blade/All I need's a volunteer/I'll cut you in half/While you're smiling ear to ear."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

Premium
World

How the Epstein case snowballed from courts and dogged reporting

World
|Updated

Musk launches AI girlfriend available to 12-year-olds

World

Trump lambasts 'foolish' Republicans amid Epstein case turmoil


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Premium
Premium
How the Epstein case snowballed from courts and dogged reporting
World

How the Epstein case snowballed from courts and dogged reporting

New York Times: It's evolved from a legal trail into a recipe for conspiracy theories.

16 Jul 08:00 PM
Musk launches AI girlfriend available to 12-year-olds
World
|Updated

Musk launches AI girlfriend available to 12-year-olds

16 Jul 07:48 PM
Trump lambasts 'foolish' Republicans amid Epstein case turmoil
World

Trump lambasts 'foolish' Republicans amid Epstein case turmoil

16 Jul 07:19 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP