celebrity gossip, academic style

E!’s Declaration of the Speidi-Free Zone

Last Wednesday, E! gave their viewers a very specific sort of power. Like other channels, websites, and shows that rely on viewer feedback to determine programming, E! decided to let its users decide a very important question — should they continue to cover the self-aggrandizing, obvious fame-mongering, preposterous posturing that is Heidi and Spencer Pratt?

[Side note: For those of you whose eyes do not wander to the US Weekly in the grocery store lane, Heidi and Spencer Pratt hail from MTV reality show The Hills -- Heidi was friends with the show's 'star' Lauren Conrad; her boyfriend insinuated himself into the show; they quickly developed 'villain' personalities on the supposedly non-scripted show; after Spencer/Heidi became Lauren's arch enemies, the show and the gossip rags exploited the rivalry Jennifer-Angelina style, spawning a long series of covers (rivaled only by the recent slew of Jon and Kate Plus 8 covers) that rendered the quasi-pseudo-feud into 'real' gossip news. In other words, the mags/gossip sites turned it into a story, most likely because there was little else going on at the time.]

Heidi and Spencer got engaged, de-engaged, plastic-surgeried, re-engaged, faux-married, real-married, and here they are — hungry to exploit themselves for profit in whatever way possible. (And Us Weekly has been eager to pay them to tell their ‘real story’ — and once one of the major magazines covers it, that means the rest of the outlets must as well. Once the story has been ‘made,’ it must be covered.)

In recent weeks, Heidi and Spencer, or ‘Speidi,’ as they’re now known, have been in the news again — this time for their destructive, supposedly traumatic participation with NBC reality show I’m a Celebrity….Get Me Out of Here! I don’t want to go too far into the details, but suffice to say that it’s a show where they try to make pampered celebrities feel less pampered (in this case, they were in the middle of nowhere in Costa Rica). Spencer and Heidi made huge scenes (on in particular over shampoo); they very loudly invoked Jesus; they were baptized by one of the Baldwin brothers in a Costa Rica river. All very obvious ploys at media coverage — similar to their appearance a few months back on the beach with Swine-Flu masks. (Hey Heidi, you know how we can make sure the paparazzi take a picture of us? Wear swine flu masks to the beach.)

Fame-Whoring, Communicable-Disease Style

Now, for whatever reason, this seemed to serve as a breaking point. Audiences found this particular scene — and the coverage that resulted from it — to a be a new brand of repugnant. In the video below, you can see the usually kindly Al Roker take a hatchet to their rhetoric. It’s like Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer…only Roker looks much sillier and Speidi has nothing to say. (Note that Heidi later claimed that Roker made her cry.)

All this points to a case of “celebrity fatigue,” and Speidi may or may not regret the scene that they made — or they may power through the fatigue and emerge just as self-exploitative on the other side. Due to the hoopla over Jon and Kate, the scene garnered only a sidebar in the recent issue of Us Weekly…but the cover was still given over to Spencer’s sister’s supposed battle with bulemia, incited by the ‘mean skinny girls’ on the show.

For example, see E!’s recent poll on whether users would like to make the channel a ‘Speidi-Free Zone.” In their words:

Have you had enough?

We’re referring, of course, to Spencer and Heidi Pratt, the reality show retreads who will go to any length—from swine flu photo ops to claims of South American torture—to get a little attention. OK, all your attention.

Now’s your chance to make Speidi go away.

Beginning today through Sunday, we are putting it to the fans to decide whether to banish Heidi and Spencer from E! forever, or at least until they do something truly newsworthy. Or let us know if you want to see their every move documented. Vote in our online poll to declare E! a Speidi-free zone. Results will be announced on E! News Monday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Al Roker was joking when he said he’d “hit them with Mace and tie them up.” We obviously don’t condone that craziness at all, but if you can irritate the unflappable Roker that much, well, you’ve got to be pretty annoying. And since you voted Spencer Most Awful celeb, you may just agree.

So let’s settle this like adults: Have you had enough Speidi or would you like some more? We’ll do as you wish.

The choice is yours.

An overwhelming 94% voted online for the change, underscoring the fatigue. But perhaps we should think about this move, both on the part of E! and its viewers, a bit more. In typical Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style fashion, I’ll make a list:

1.) The “Speidi-Free” Zone Decision will likely attract just as much attention to the pair as they would’ve received on E!. Obviously I found out about it — via feminist-skewing Gawker publication Jezebal — which means that it’s being picked up outside of the purely-gossip world. In essence, E! is making publicity for itself by helping ban someone else.

2.) What’s the purpose of refusing to cover a particular type of story? It’s all part of branding. Lainey Gossip refuses to cover what she terms ‘sad smut’: suicide attempts, the Rhianna/Chris Brown affair, etc. She also stays away from reality celebrities as a general rule — Jon and Kate, Speidi, Lauren Conrad, none of them have a place on her blog. It’s product differentiation: you go to her for gossip about ‘real’ stars. E! is trying to make itself appear both responsive to the whims of its users and savvy enough to know that they were reaching the point of fatigue.

3.) There’s something very loaded about ‘hating’ celebrities. As you see above, Spencer was labeled the ‘most hated celebrity.’ Obviously he’s loathsome: if you’ve seen the show, everything about him is repellent. But The Hills, like the celebrity game in general, is cast with good guys and bad guys — and Spencer has adeptly taken up the role assigned to him. In fact, he has taken it up as if it were a late 19th century melodrama, coming to embody ‘pure evil.’

But it’s not that he’s the embodiment of ‘bad masculinity’ — he’s become a nexus of ‘bad celebrity.’ He’s everything that’s wrong about the pseudo-celebrity (aka the celebrity who’s famous for being famous) — he exploits everyone in his life for fame, behaves badly, isn’t good looking, has no redeeming qualities….he is the ugly, unfortunate, embarrassing by-product of our fascination with fame. His very existence shames us. He is like a celebrity-magazine Frankenstein: he are his maker.

And that, at least in my opinion, is why we hate him - the same way that John Wayne hates his doppelganger in The Searchers (sorry, esoteric film studies reference). Indeed, when Al Roker lashes out at the pair, don’t you think it’s rooted in the shame he feels for his network (NBC) for airing I’m a Celebrity in the first place?

94% percent of E! users voted to ban him from the channel because each and every one wants to forget the consumption habits that made him a star in the first place. It’s an attempt to effectively bury a particular section of one’s curious, celebrity-hungry psychology. And it’s not going to work. There will always be another Speidi: banishing them from E! will only create a bigger, even more shameful monster.