The Atlantic - Latest Comments in A celebrity among celebrities

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

anna perez — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:56:28 -0000

Just guessing but I bet JFK was a little different with Sinatra as was Reagan with Sinatra and Lew Wasserman or Clinton with all of Hollywood. This has ever been thus. Its just nice to see the ego stripped like bark from these celebrity redwoods and for a really good reason.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Sweet William — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:28:40 -0000

This is so beautiful! Thank you. I cried and cried. (Not that it matters, but I'm a 62-year old white man.)

Yes we can!

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Paula — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:00:46 -0000

Gruntled, I'm not sure who's doing the camera work, but the one hopping around like a 12-year-old and "introducing" everything is John Legend, R&B singer. Next to him in the pretty embroidered jacket is Beyonce [Knowles], the one who they're telling to "sing, we'll back you up, B." The one Obama addresses as "Queen" is Queen Latifah, actress, sometime singer [but, for me, always a pioneering female rap artist from the 80s]. The one who get's complimented on her all-white outfit is Mary J. Blige, de facto queen of hip-hop soul [gotta love it that she can sing on stage absolutely alone, no backup dancers, and still be the most compelling person to watch in comparison to other performers]. Then it's Josh Groban, who get's complimented on his beautiful voice, and the probably Tom Hanks and [what looks like] Denzel Washington in sunglasses. There are a buncha people in between I don't recognize.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

pps — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:57:13 -0000

3 years ago, I stood on those steps at the Lincoln Memorial, and noticed the granite tile where MLK gave his speech from. I stood there and and looked out to the Washington memorial. That was an inspirational/emotional moment for me. I didn't know this celebration would happen 3 yrs later.

http://www.thedctraveler.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/lincoln-memorial-mlk-i-have-a-dream-location-thumb.jpg

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

brucds — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:27:04 -0000

"it is the media's obligation to present the two sides, not to decide which one is better."

It is the media's obligation to present ALL sides within a spectrum of rational opinon but also help voters evaluate the quality of that opinion. Providing context and analysis, in fact, is as much the mission and responsibility of "journalistic objectivity" as not simply taking sides on ideological or partisan grounds. Rush Limbaugh sounding off on the stimulus isn't "balance" to Paul Krugman, just as Cynthia McKinney spouting her views on Israel isn't "balance" to, say, the editorial insights of Haaretz.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Gruntled — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:58:04 -0000

For the benefit of the old and unhip, could someone identify who the celebrities are in this video?

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Paula — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:22:32 -0000

"I never expected this to happen, even as I got older and older:

The President is hipper than I am.

It's good and it's not so good."

I'm 27, and it took a third viewing for me to realize what he was referring to when he started waving his hand in reference to "Single Ladies" -- I'm trying to process the fact that the POTUS knows this song.

BUT, where was Common??? I would rather he be the prince of the hour rather than Hova.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Diablevert — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:38:13 -0000

Somehow the thing that gets me about this little video is when he's all, "Hey Queen!" There's something so totally, inconceivably, over-the-top American about this moment...he's the President, but she's still the Queen, a title a regular NYC kid bestowed on herself...I'm expressing badly, here, but it's something to do with the true nature of regality...

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Paula — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:17:48 -0000

My gawd, who'd need to be paid to attend something like this? Mariah Carey diva-ness aside, it sounds like they were excited just to be able to stand there, much less have a co-starring/performing role in the proceedings.

And the nice thing is that they seemed equally wowed with the audience as they were with the O-man himself.

I love his greeting to Mary J. Much love and respect to her. :) I felt like weeping over her performance of "Lean on Me".

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

TomParmenter — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:51:54 -0000

I never expected this to happen, even as I got older and older:

The President is hipper than I am.

It's good and it's not so good.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

CitizenE — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:21:57 -0000

Sheesh--Ronald Reagan was a movie star for God's sake, and the Governator an even bigger movie star. Of course Clinton was a celebrity, in the rock and roll star mode replete with groupies. Obama makes use of all that on one hand, but on the other his invitation to the common person diffuses the ridiculous idolitry of our celebrity culture. McCain's campaign believed more in the power of celebrity by a mile, which is why he was so frightened of Obama's popularity and why the wrinkly old dude practically invited a talentless, often clueless Paris Hilton to refer to both Obama and him, the two prospectively most powerful people in the world, as "bitches." Yoyo Ma is widely considered the world's greatest living musician--he was there too.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Jon H — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:34:11 -0000

"Celebs on the stage -- via preferred access or $50,000 donations are nothing new"

I think they're all/mostly the performers who appeared at various official high-profile events such as the concert on Sunday before the inauguration. It's not surprising that they would get good seats for the inaugural. Especially if they performed for free.

Also, they aren't just rap/R&B performers. I saw milquetoast Josh Groban in there, and either James Taylor or Geddy Lee.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Keith — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:53:06 -0000

Heh.

EW picked up on Mr. President referencing the Beyonce/Justin Timberlake "Single Ladies" parody from SNL a few months back.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/01/obama-beyonce-j.html

He really is the first pop culture President we've had since Kennedy (Clinton blowing sax on Arsenio does NOT count.)

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Deb — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:28:55 -0000

Not only is Barack intelligent, he is the coolest President we ever had.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

posey — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:26:33 -0000

Obama speaks to them with the ease that come from familiarity. Like old friends. Like family.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

The Foulness — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:23:53 -0000

Urk is right, there is a distinction between artists and "celebrities" which really connotes someone like Paris Hilton, or is just uses as a way to demean people like Brad Pitt who has been nominated for two Oscars for his acting.

I mean, who depends on celebrity more than a politician? George Bush would have never, ever had a chance to be president if it weren't for the celebrity inherent in his name. And John McCain is practically the epitome of the celebrity politician, the man goes on Leno more than The Governator.

And I don't see anything wrong with that. It's a politician's job to be popular. Otherwise you couldn't win elections.

The whole "Obama is a the world's biggest celebrity" was meant to be demeaning, but was also a self-fulfilling prophesy in the sense that now he pretty much is the most famous person in the world I would guess...

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Urk — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:35:04 -0000

And isn't there some distinction that can be made between musicians, & "celebrities"? creative people who are famous for creating moments of popular expressive culture in a medium where Africans Americans have made a tremendous worldwide impact, where they found a voice that was denied elsewhere and worked that voice through minstrelsy and exploitation to redefine those popular mediums around the whole idea of the value of expressly unfettered black voices? surely that's more than celebrity,a nd surely that has something to do with why those people are on that stage.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

lolagib1 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:25:21 -0000

President Obama is a cool man. Very calm, lots of swag, he got that from Chicago!

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Obie Joe — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:23:25 -0000

Celebs on the stage -- via preferred access or $50,000 donations are nothing new -- and it's telling that another edition of an old song has even collected outrage. Bush had his celebs, why can't Obama? I loved seeing the On/Off switch of each celebrity as a non-celeb approached them. And that not many of them conversated with one another!

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

DougEMI — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:11:57 -0000

No, I am not saying they will report the truth, what I am saying is that the pool reporters should not be biased, shouldn't pull for certain candidate in their work. If they want that job, they should apply at the DNC and not at the New York Times.

They can vote for whomever they desire in their roles as private citizens, but if they are biased on the job, their credibility is out the door. No one side has a monopoly on the truth, see Orwell's Notes on Nationalism.

As a practical point, I would imagine most of those NY and Washington reporters send their kids to private school.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

tobby — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:01:42 -0000

DougEMI,

So, you are telling me that folks at Weekly Standard, Washington Times and NRO will report the truth? You said voters should decide the truth. Well, journalists are voters too. They have children going to failing schools too. They saw their shares varnishing like the speed of light. They saw a dumb Ivy league MBA president destroying what they worked for several years. Some of them, have cousins in Iraq fighting a dumb war.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

DougEMI — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:53:02 -0000

Tobby, But people who get statements like Obama is a socialist get them largely from opinion journalists, not the pool reporters. If the guy from the Wash. Post went around acting like Joe McCarthy, he would be removed. People thought Bush was going to reinstate the draft in 2005, so people believe all kinds of false things.

Adam, you can take it too far and get into just reporting press releases, but take global warming. Those who believe it is caused by our spewing of carbon have vastly different opinions on that. Some say it is too late to do anything, others say we have 5 years, some say 20. So what is the proper way to cover all that. They all claim to have science on their side but it all has vastly different implications.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Tessa — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:49:40 -0000

More celebrities attended Obama's inauguration and peripheral events than any other presidential inauguration. Not surprising for the first african american president. More celebration, more celebrities, more attendance, more viewers worldwide. And then of course, there's the voice, the suave looks, the words, the message, the man. Yeah, you nailed it McCain.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

tobby — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:29:59 -0000

DougEMI,

I see your point, however, most voters vote based on what they hear from the pool. Example, I knocked few doors in VA and the folks there told me they will not vote for Barack because they hear in the news that he is a socialist--and that he didn't visit the troops while he was away in Germany and Iraq.

You may recall, it was the media too who were telling people how Latinos will never vote for a black man.

Re: A celebrity among celebrities

Adam — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:26:07 -0000

"it is the media's obligation to present the two sides, not to decide which one is better."

It's easy to take this too far. Look at stuff like global warming and creationism in schools. You can't just have an argument where the media reports that one side has reality and science and the other side denies the facts of reality, with equal time given to both since it's a controversy. Sometimes stuff is just objectively wrong, and I'd want the media to point that out, not pretend it's not wrong because 30% of the country believes that. That's what gets illegal spying and everything going wrong in Iraq not reported on; the truth would greatly offend one side.