Talk about mixed messages.
•Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner won't say whether they're dating
but then cuddle at the most public venue imaginable — Fenway Park
during the World Series.
•Britney Spears tells fans she's taking a break because she's
tired of paparazzi attention. Then she scrawls graffiti on the wall
of a Hollywood boutique — “Britney Spears woz here!! With her hubby
Kevin Federline, who is the sexiest man alive!” — ensuring that the
photo will show up everywhere.
•Lindsay Lohan laments in her single Rumors that she needs
“a little space to breathe/Can you please respect my privacy.” But
she makes a highly publicized guest appearance on (now ex-)
boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama's TV series, That '70s Show.
Such apparently contradictory behavior doesn't surprise pop
culture experts.
Many celebrities are “addicted to getting feedback from other
people, but they resent depending on it,” says author Sam Vaknin
(Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, 2003), who has
studied addiction to fame.
Finding a balance is difficult, says Janice Min, editor in chief
of celebrity magazine Us Weekly. Stars “work so hard to get
the public interested in them, but it's hard to turn it off.”
Sometimes stars are trying to control what's printed about their
private lives, finding ways to prevent unmanageable demand for
information or pictures, Min says.
Affleck and Garner avoided being photographed together after they
coupled up. As the price tag on that coveted image soared, the
couple faced more paparazzi than usual in their daily lives, Min
says. But once they appeared together at the World Series and were
widely photographed, the paparazzi frenzy diminished.
Affleck's publicist, Ken Sunshine, says stars do very little
“plotting and scheming” about how to satisfy the public appetite for
tidbits about their private lives. Stars “absolutely deserve a
private life,” he says, “and they don't need to answer questions
about their personal life … and they aren't going to let the
paparazzi thwart their right to a private life.”
Sunshine also represents pop star Justin Timberlake, who obtained
a restraining order in England against a photographer earlier this
year.
But a private life can be possible, even for megastars. Consider
new mother Julia Roberts, whose star rose amid a called-off wedding
to Kiefer Sutherland and several failed relationships. Roberts made
an effort to stop leading her private life in the Hollywood glare at
parties and clubs, Min says, and she stopped talking about her
personal life. It's hard for stars to have it both ways.
Roberts “decided she wanted it one way,” Min says, “and she got
it.”
