celebs – Page 17 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

Mum’s the word

What is the world of celeb endorsement coming to? In the same week, we have not one but two Celeb Mums of the Year!

Kym Ryder was unveiled as Celeb Mum of the Year for her ability to have a job and bring up kids – blimey, don’t any other mums do that!?

And last week, Suzanne Shaw was revealed as the La Redoute Celeb Mum of the Year – note the sponsorship angle of this gong.

I’m not knocking the recognition of mums, although the fact that two female members of Hear’Say are the only two celebs in the running is rather worrying, rather the fact that there are now two ‘competing’ awards. Why? How many celeb mums do you need to honour every 12 months?

This is the kind of pointless promotion that will put the proverbial nail in the coffin of celeb journalism – a demise that is again high on the prediction list.

The signs that celeb journalism is starting to fade have been all too evident in the past week or two. ABC figures released last month showed a sharp drop in circulation of 3 of the biggest celeb weekly titles (Heat, Now and Closer), while last week Mark Frith announced he’s leaving Heat (the magazine that spearheaded the celeb boom) after 10 years.

Clearly, there’s life in the genre for a while longer, but if sales of these magazines decline further, something else will inevitably come along and take its place. What will it be? Watch this space…

Why is Grazia obsessed with Jennifer Aniston?

Jennifer Aniston is a pretty well-known person, I’m sure you’ll agree. Along with the other five Friends, she appeared in probably the most successful American sitcom ever.

But her role as Rachel Green finished in 2004 – that’s 4 years ago. Since Friends finished (and even before that), she has desperately tried to establish herself as a movie star.

Sadly, despite her best efforts, she hasn’t really managed it.

Films such as Rumor Has It, Along Came Polly, Derailed haven’t set the world on fire.

But for some reason, she is still desperately interesting to the likes of Grazia magazine. She hasn’t even been going out with ex-husband Brad Pitt for 4 years either.

The one thing that seems to obsess Grazia magazine is her ‘quest’ to find another partner and potentially even have a baby.

For God’s sake, why? None of us know her, none of us are ever likely to know her, so what’s the big deal?

So she lost out in love? Is it really such a big deal that someone as famous as her can’t make it work? Words fail me…

US actors lose out

Oscar winners 2008 So the Oscars are over for another year and the gongs have been handed out.

And among all the coverage of this year’s awards, there seems to be one thing that has been overlooked: all the main acting statues were awarded to non-Americans, and Europeans to boot.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton are both British, while Marion Cotillard is French and Javier Bardem is Spanish. Nothing for the likes of Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney or Ellen Page.

Whether this says something about the sort of roles European actors get, I don’t know, but I thought it was an interesting side issue.