Do celebrities do more harm than good?

The SST has an article that looks into celebrity endorsements, and the harm they may do:

MADONNA AND Gucci on the United Nations’ lawn. Backstreet Boys’ Kevin Richardson and Elmo on Capitol Hill. Lionel Richie, Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone at the World Economic Forum. Some of the world’s most troubled places and august institutions have welcomed some of the world’s dumbest, most insufferable entertainers, and one English columnist is saying “stop the madness”. …

It amazes me that because someone is a good actor, they are deemed an authority on an issue.

Hyde’s chapter on celebrity activism is particularly good. Celebrities actors, musicians tend to react emotionally and inexpertly to complex political and economic problems, drawing attention to them, sure, but, in the process, oversimplifying them. “You know what `raising awareness’ is?” Hyde footnotes sarcastically in her book. “Cheaper than `giving money’.”

Indeed.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who made an environmental documentary, flies in private jets. Bono, who sits on Ireland’s Hunger Task Force which lobbies the government to devote more funds to aid, and who frequently appeals for donations from Ireland’s taxpayers, is himself tax-exiled to the Netherlands.

Hypocrisy abounds.

Not content with damaging our health, celebrities are also assaulting our democratic rights. When Angelina Jolie-Pitt headed to Namibia to birth baby Shiloh Nouvel by scheduled caesarean, her bodyguard cordoned off roads, assaulted a restaurant owner and used pepper spray. House-to-house searches were conducted in case locals were hiding media. The Namibian government enforced a no-fly zone above the coast where Pitt and Jolie’s five-star hotel was, and the Namibian embassy in Pretoria told journalists they needed permission in writing from Pitt and Jolie to get an entry visa. Journalists were deported, their equipment confiscated and one was arrested.

Jolie, one of the “goodwill ambassadors” for the UN, who has “Know your rights” tattooed on the back of her neck, had effectively seized control of Namibia’s borders and airspace and, as Phil ya Nangoloh, director of Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights observed, brought its democratic status into serious question.

It would be funny, if it wasn’t true.