Stars make a disproportionate amount because of their popularity; the same attachment that raises their value, goes along with the attention towards their private life. If popularity wouldn't generate such attention, they wouldn't certainly get such amounts of money.
They make lots of money by deliberately signing themselves up for privacy violations. The relation between celebrities and paparazzi is symbiotic, not parasitic, despite what the former sometimes say (or some even think). It's how popularity manifests and grows, and popularity is what celebrities make money on.
Except they don't sign up for privacy violations. They sign up to make music, or act in films, or whatever it is they do.
I'm sure some famous people purposefully encourage paparazzi to follow them, but certainly not all of them. You must have noticed how most of the photos coming from paparazzi feature someone who's famous in particular circles looking pissed off at a gaggle of photographers following them around as they go to the shops with a hangover.
So are you saying that anyone who makes music for a living cares more about money than privacy? That there isn't anyone who would prefer to be able to entertain onstage and live a private life offstage, even if it reduces their income?
Half the responses in this subthread seem to be from people who honestly believe that every actor and musician and athlete cares about money above all else and deserves any consequences of that drive, and it's just really bizarre.
I don't mean they care about money above everything else, not in a condescending way. I only mean that lack of privacy is a part of being a celebrity, and it is a fact about the nature of things, whether anyone likes it or not. Privacy issues come with the territory.
>How dare they successfully make music for a living, and expect their family to live normal lives! The arrogance.
How dare they successfully make crappy music for a living, beating the shit out of the art of music, and willingly watering down their offerings, while at the same time selling themselves as sex symbols and teenage idols, oftentimes willingly cooperating and provoking the media for cheap publicity, and expect their family to live normal lives!
This is an incredibly dangerous position, all the more dangerous because it doesn't seem so. Fundamentally you are dehumanizing someone. You are denying someone the protections of civilized society, you are refusing to empathize with someone else's suffering. Because their status as famous and/or rich obviates the need for compassion.
And yet, is that even remotely true? Does being rich and famous make someone so much happier and immune from suffering that a little extra suffering here and there (such as invasions of privacy by the paparazzi) still results in net less suffering than the average person? Every indication seems to point toward that not being the case in the vast majority of cases. And there are many indications that the cost of fame can indeed result in significant suffering, as many high profile suicides and overdoses after long battles with drug addiction testify.
Celebrities are just people, they should be treated as such.
It's a shitty thing and it's a net positive if it goes away. You are free to use your time and energy to pursue those other things that you think are more pressing.
"It's cool being a celebrity but I'd still like to be able to go outside without some tubby dude with a camera trying to piss me off so he can sell a video clip of me acting angry to TMZ so a bunch of people can make fun of me."
But that is how you make money! That TMZ makes people talk about you, which makes it more likely they'll show up on your concert / performance, buy your CDs or whatever.
"Gentleman of above-average girth, who might weight more than the average person in our skinny-normative society but still has feelings, y'know, and it's hard to get McDonald's burger juice off of a white shirt if you're out for the night trying to get Lindsay Lohan to do something embarrassing and you don't have time to, like, do laundry, and so would just appreciate it if you wouldn't make a big deal about the way he looks while he's busy making fun of other people."
> "I didn't think that becoming a celebrity would screw up my private life," said no one ever.
I've actually seen lots of people say that (and, even more often, seen people say that they didn't expect the thing they did that led to their celebrity to lead to celebrity and then screw up their private life.)
