Staff Reports
It seems like Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey have accidentally found themselves in the crosshairs of public scrutiny lately, and boy, it’s been quite the spectacle. Imagine a motorcade that stops traffic for mere mortals while the reigning pop princess glides by like she’s the queen of Canada. Yes, in a recent show of excessive privilege, Taylor was granted an impressive police escort in Toronto, where the transportation chaos left everyday folk feeling like extras in an episode of “The Hunger Games.” For some reason, Swift thinks that eco-friendliness only applies to her music, not to the ten thousand cars idling in carbon-producing protest of her royal arrival.
It’s baffling. Here’s a gal who sings about love, heartbreak, and, oh yes, climate change, but when it comes to her lifestyle, such as numerous private jet trips that could rival a dino bonfire in the fuel department, she seems to check her values at the round trip ticket counter. This is the same person constantly tweeting about saving the planet while contributing more to global warming than a frat house full of barbecue smokers on a Saturday night. For a celebrity who boasts about caring for the environment, the irony here is thicker than the bodyguards flanking her as she glides effortlessly past those poor Canadians stuck in traffic.
Then there’s Oprah Winfrey, another star who somehow managed to combine celebrity and political endorsement like a bad recipe that just won’t go away. She’s lately been embroiled in a bit of controversy regarding an endorsement deal with Kamala Harris. It turns out that while QE Oprah might not have personally pocketed a cool million bucks, she had some cash flowing through her production company, all funded by a hefty $2.5 million that Harris’s campaign presumably viewed as a savvy investment in star power. But the denial game was strong—Oprah claimed she didn’t get paid personally, just that her company did, which is like saying you don’t eat the candy; you just take it home and share it with your “friends.”
Fun fact: When you’re the CEO of your own company and your company lands a contract worth millions, it’s practically a cash cow just waiting for some creative accounting. While usual folks find themselves facing premium prices for groceries, these celebrities parade around in wealth so extravagant they might as well be living on another planet. If only we could throttle back the glitz and glamour and force these stars to experience grocery shopping or pumping gas every once in a while. Think of the possibilities! Maybe then they’d reshape their sentiment and remember that their followers live in worlds vastly different from their gated communities.
And let’s not even mention the cavalcade of celebrities—those whose opinions seem to matter far too much on social justice and politics. Something is profoundly ironic when Hollywood’s elite lecture the rest of us about climate responsibility or social justice while they live lives that contradict their very preachings. It’s as if they’ve formed their little bubble, where Taylor is our eco-warrior princess and Oprah the beacon of honesty, all while they blissfully ignore the pesky resolve we common folk have to maintain. If only more people realized that the key to a better country might just start with celebrities taking a step back and, dare I say, embracing a little bit of humility.
So, as the Trump trains troll through Hollywood’s glittering neighborhoods, you can almost hear the collective sigh of satisfaction from folks fed up with this seemingly endless stream of hollow celebrity activism. Maybe, just maybe, the future of celebrity music and political endorsement won’t hinge on who can sell the most records or sway the next political heavy. Instead, it might just pivot on who can chime in on the everyday struggles of the average American without losing their way amidst their routines of excess. As comical as this whole saga is, perhaps it’s a sign that people are realizing that celebrity culture isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. At least that’s what folks are hoping for—a return to a world where they can just enjoy their music and movies without the unwanted side of social critique layered on top.
