Tonight was Stephen Fry and it was another fascinating programme. Pamela Connolly was more explicit in her aim to peek around the edge of the celebrity facade and discover the person behind. She was much more bullish than she was last night with Sharon Osbourne, pressing Stephen more and, it seemed to me, with more of a specific destination in mind.
The thing that jumped out at me most was his abiding impression of himself as a FRAUD. This is a very common condition - yet again Radio 4 has been the source of education. Most of us, it seems, are wondering just how long will it be before I'm found out?? We carry the nagging thought that we're just bluffing our way along. Very successful people on the Radio 4 programme were describing just this. To the onlooker, it is lunacy! These people are so clearly good at what they do, how could they possibly not be super confident and self assured??
However, even though the visible celebrity develops in response to increasing "success" the inner person remains with all the same hopes, hurts, insecurities and fears. Possibly the more lauded you are, the greater the fear of being uncovered.
In our Sunday morning get together at our house I was describing my "glass sphere". I am in this sphere and according to the situation in which I find myself I will paste to the inside facets of myself - real or affected - to present as good an impression as possible to the outside. Rather, this is the temptation, isn't it? Socially, of course, this is at times wholly appropriate; each of us will adjust our behaviours in line with the expectations of those around us. But, it is for us to decide when and where this is a good thing or a bad thing, and to what extent we reveal or conceal ourselves.
Celebrity takes this to the extreme, it seems to me, and glancing through "Hello" (not mine, I assure you...) it looks terrifying.
2 comments:
Interesting - I didn't see the programme, but what you write rings true in my experience.
Is it being repeated?
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