The Rise of “Celebrity Colonialism”
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.01.06 | 7:21 AM ET
What is it? According to a piece by Brendan O’Neill in Spiked, it’s what happens when celebrities like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie descend on a tiny nation like Namibia and start calling the shots. “Their daughter - Shiloh Nouvel - was born on Saturday night,” he writes. “As they awaited the birth they reportedly surrounded themselves with their own personal security detail and armed Namibian police. According to the Independent there was even a no-fly zone, enforced by the Namibian government, over the luxurious Burning Shore beach resort where Pitt and Jolie were holed up. Apparently, the stars also got to dictate which reporters could and could not enter the country.”
What’s more, he writes:
According to one report, the Namibian government ‘bowed to pressure from the duo and granted them the right to ban foreign journalists from entering the country - a remarkable move for the government of any sovereign state’. The government is said to have granted this extraordinary veto to Brad and Angelina after the couple told ministers that they would be ‘forced to quit the country unless allegedly intrusive journalists and paparazzi were brought to heel’. Namibian ministers hope that a trip by two Hollywood bigwigs to their shores will do wonders for their tourism industry, and thus have done everything they can to keep the couple happy.
Amazing.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Alfons Badi 06.01.06 | 7:56 PM ET
I think that is Namibia for u they always look after their gues what did u expect they should do sit back and watch how hungry jornalist come and make peolpe life miserable.I they wanted publicity they could have stay in the Great America and get it there.
Mollie Foti 06.02.06 | 12:28 PM ET
Well, this is just sad - for many different reasons, not the least being that Nambia is so desperate.
And shame on Brad and Angelina for doing this. Other equally “big” celebrities seem to be able to have babies without this sort of thing.
Seems to me, our society should care less about celebrity births and more about the truly important things, such as why Nambia is so desperate. I’d suggest those journalists look for some real stories.
Alfons Badi 06.02.06 | 1:04 PM ET
The one thing that I have learn nowadays it is quiet hard to let Americans feel happy.No matter how hard you try to stay clear of them there will always be a way were you meet.anyhow the kid has been born and she received namibian birth certificate.The big question is does Namibia not deserve a little bit of publicity.The Great Frankie Fredricks the only man who was the true opponent of The Great Michael Johnson also put Namibia on the map or in the spotlight.And Michael Mclean won the Miss Universe in Thailand.But anyhow it is up to you Americans who practically run these world.Since we are also getting aid from you, maybe we should shut our months and keep quiet.Anyhow it was just a comment.
Mary 06.03.06 | 9:25 PM ET
Why does the journalist spend their time on reporting news that affect lives instead of chasing Brad and Angelina all over the world. I am happy they went there and I am happy the government protected them, the media are only interested in gossip and getting the money shot that will enrich the paparazzi. No other celebrity have been hounded like these two, if you are a man and you have photographers hounding your pregnant wife, you will do whatever neccesary to protect her and that is exactly what Brad Pitt did and I sy good for him.
The media should go to Darfur as there is a lot that the public need to know.
John G 06.04.06 | 4:34 AM ET
We as journalists would not have this pressure on us to dig everything and anything on celebrities if the rest of the world were not so besotted with them. But nobody wants to know about Darfur - just too depressing, as the truth often is - and would rather escape into lala land. It is the moronic masses who buy crappy magazines - instead of serious ones - that set off this mentally incontinent moronity called “celebrity watch.” As a journalist, I hate it, and I am sure the Jolie-Pitts hate it equally - especially at this stage in their lives. Boycott People magazine and other similarly lousy “celebrity magazines”, if you are serious about this.