In my hometown, the Toronto International Film Festival is in full gear, with hundreds of movie stars and executives in the city to walk the red carpet and promote their films. At the same time, thousands of movie fans are taking in hundreds of new films and fawning over their favourite celebrities. Such is the frenzy that accompanies North America's largest film fest (and second only to Cannes in prestige) that the city's theatres, posh eateries, hip night clubs and hotels are largely catering only to the film festival.
Which led me to think that while such events are great for the local economy and the Canadian film industry, it does reveal the shallowness of the industry and its followers and fans. Other more important social issues are relegated to secondary news stories by newspapers and television news programs when Brad Pitt arrives on the red carpet. Who's who and wearing whom at whatever party. To be invited to a celebrity party is to be considered to be one of the in-crowd. While the upcoming federal election in Canada may be boring compared to the sight of Jennifer Aniston in a dazzling black evening gown, it nevertheless speaks volumes about where our priorities lay in a materialistic world.
Even some of the movie stars and celebrities could do more. Kudos goes to the likes of Matt Damon who every year, supports the local One X One charity gala, helping not only to raise money but also awareness of grass roots development programs in third world countries. While there are those stars such as Angela Jolie, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Bono and Wyclef Jean who are tireless advocates of social change, they remain a minority in the industry as others use their fame for their own purposes and not society as a whole. A pity some of the younger stars who exhibit self-destructive behaviour (yes, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, we're talking about you) could find greater happiness if they spent more of their time, money and influence helping others, since spending it on themselves doesn't seem to be bringing them much happiness. Fans themselves could support those philanthropic actors rather than those who are the best-looking and pressure the others to do more with their star power to help the developing world or the environment.
Even those on the fringe of the industry such as Canadian Jeff Skoll (one of the first employees at eBay) whose Skoll Foundation funds films that have a powerful social message. He finances these films, usually not because he expects to have a blockbuster hit, but because he knows that these types of movies would not be made by mainstream film studios and that there is a need to get important social and political messages out to the mainstream public. The film industry should follow the various sports leagues such as the PGA Tour or the NBA with formal programs and funs to actively promote social change and use their influence, as sports stars do, to make the world a better place.
Then, we could truly look at these celebrities as stars.
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