At the daily late-morning editorial meeting, the photo editor brought in images, many taken by paparazzi, that had come in over the wires overnight. He spread the color print-outs of celebrities all over the table: movie premieres, vacations, nights on the town. Bonnie sifted through them and focused on a photo of Drew Barrymore leaning over to fetch a coin off the sidewalk.
“Look at Drew Barrymore picking up a penny,” she said. “It’s like, stars, they’re just like us.”
Drew Barrymore picking up that penny went on to change Us Weekly, tabloid media, the paparazzi economy, and the celebrity ecosystem as a whole. A photo of an actress casually bending over on the street was suddenly interesting to readers and valuable to editors, which incentivized photographers to capture more everyday moments, and ultimately nudged celebrities to become willing participants in the process. A penny shot quickly turned into a money shot.
The 65-year-old actor told the magazine that he wore his custom camouflage getup to The Grove LA, a popular outdoor mall in Los Angeles. Amongst all the visitors, he blended in.
“Nobody recognized me,” he said.
But, living out his dream wasn’t what he imagined.
“People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice,” he recalled. “Nobody said, ‘I love you.’ I had to wait in line to, I don’t know, buy a f––ing coffee or whatever.”
He swiftly realized he wanted to return to his A-list status.
“I was like, ‘This sucks. I want to go back to being famous,’” he added.
This is just one experience. But once you are at some level of social status – whether the leader of a known organization or a Hollywood star or a member of the 1% – how possible is it to live a “normal” life, whether judged from one’s own experiences or by those around you?
Legally Sociable 