Manipulative Media

by ally ~ November 25, 2008

As a self-described celebrity gossip hound, the Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie love triangle has captured my attention like most of the free world.  So it was with great interest that I came across this New York Times article detailing Angelina’s careful manipulation of the media.

I’m jaded enough to know not to believe everything I read (especially in the cutthroat gossip magazine world) but was surprised to find out how far celebrities go to preserve their public image.  And I was even more shocked to find out Angelina does it all on her own.  No publicist, no agent, just her and her lawyer. 

If the sources are true, Angelina sets up photo shoots with the paparazzi (but these days, who doesn’t - have you seen Heidi and Spencer?) but takes it to the next level by asking for and generally getting only positive coverage in the magazines that buy her photos.  While the magazines deny this because obviously it doesn’t put their editorial content in good light, I have no doubt that this is exactly what happens.

Angelina was portrayed, for better or for worse, as a home wrecking husband-stealer.  This type of bad press can turn fickle moviegoers off and force studios to think about hiring someone with that sort of identity (see also Meg Ryan after her affair with Russell Crowe).  How does someone savvy and smart turn this around?  Allow the media to only see her new humanitarian efforts, her love her adopted children and the gentler, kinder Angelina.

It worked.  Most people barely remember her time as a blood-vial-wearing, Billy Bob Thorton-marrying slightly crazy sex-starved starlet.

So will us average folk ever see the real Angelina, the real Brad, the real Jennifer?  Probably not - and I have a hunch that their public images pushes over into their private life more than they’d like to admit.

The ironic part of this whole story is that the New York Times ran this article in conjunction with a Magazine cover story on Jennifer Aniston.  Even they are apparently not immune to a good manipulation.

Ally Jenkins is a marketing manager for a tradeshow management company in Washington, DC.  She loves her US Magazine subscription and dreams of a day when she too can manipulate her public image.