Robin Williams R.I.P. 1951-2014: Shining Brilliance

Some people shine so brightly, the planet can’t contain them.

Like brilliant gems, they are the rarest of beings, created under pressure, and sparkling.

I think of Robin Williams as one of those people.

No matter what endeavors they undertake, no matter how successful they may be at those endeavors, and no matter how hard those people may try to be like everyone else, they always shine brighter…whether they want to or not, and whether or not they deep-down believe they even deserve to.

It must be incredibly painful at times…

Especially during those times when, instead of being a brilliant, sparkling gem, maybe they just want to be a pebble and blend in.

Shining brilliance comes with a lot of responsibilities, whether they’re wanted or not.

Shining brilliance is a lot to live up to.

Today I heard a lot of people refer to Robin Williams and his talent as “genius”.

On any other day, I’d agree with them. I’ve said it myself about him many times.

Today, part of me aches when I hear so many people use the word “genius” in reference to him, because I wonder if trying to live up to expectations that come with that word contributed to his pain.

I didn’t know Robin Williams, but he struck me as a gentle spirit.

Maybe, all that shining brilliance was too much to handle. Maybe that shining brilliance was too much for a gentle spirit to grasp, and too much to be contained in one human being, on one small planet.

Robin Williams' death came between last night's Supermoon, and tonight's Perseid Meteor Showers, which seems eerie and strangely fitting.

Maybe, ultimately, all that shining brilliance needed to fly free of the Earthly anchors that  that must have strained to hold his creative spirit enough for average mortals to even barely grasp…

…Especially for him to grasp, because he, too was mortal.

Fly free, and shine brightly, Mr. Williams. May you find peace.    

National Suicide Prevention Hotline

1 800 273 –TALK (8255)

Justin Beieber's At It Again: Another Michael Jackson? Plus, When to Worry About Pissing People Off

I wrote this the other day while watching coverage of Bieber's latest antics.--RR
So, Justin Bieber got arrested yesterday.

Justin's been making a lot of bad-boy news lately. Am I surprised? No. One day he sped through my neighborhood before actually getting caught at it. I recognized his very recognizable car on the news a few days later, when he did get caught.

How innocent that all seems now...Except that I knew then that we'd be here now.

I have much to say about all this...I wrote it, but as always when I write quickly, it needs to breathe first before being posted. Stay tuned...

It will probably piss some people off.

"OMG!!! You're pissing people off! Are you sure you want to...???" 

Yes.
People. It's the music industry. Pissing people off comes with the territory. If you can't handle people getting pissed off at you when you say something, you probably shouldn't be in the business. (Or any business, really. Or perhaps you might want to consider life in a solitary cave, because at some point, someone will be angry with you.)

As a business strategy, trying to avoid having people pissed off at you is one thing. (Particularly when stockholders are involved.) But on a personal level, there are far more important things in life to worry about than random people getting angry at you. (Should you go out of your way to behave in a way that's likely to piss people off? No. That would make you an obnoxious a**hole.) But I digress...

Someone just texted to tell me Justin posted photos of a side by side comparison of himself waving on top of a car, with a picture of Michael Jackson waving on top of a car. This confirms my first thought the other day when I awoke to hear Justin had been arrested for DUI:

Michael Jackson all over again. Except, Michael was much older when he really started to unravel. Michael made it to 50.

If things continue at this pace, Justin won't have that luxury. And he's nowhere close to having Michael's legacy.



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Love Letters from the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) 2008

To Paramore: That was cool. (Real singing and all! Pay attention, kids...)

To Pink: Performance of the night. (And again, with real singing!)

To anonymous artist: If you can't sing along on pitch to your own voice on your backing track...[Editor shakes head sadly.]

To Russell Brand: It was pathetic that you had to apologize for the running joke about purity promise rings...(Although we can't help noticing the irony of a Brit coming 'cross the pond to get persecuted by the religious...Guess everything comes full circle, even if it takes a few hundred years!)

To Jordin Sparks: Learn to take a joke. Calling people who have sex before marriage "slut"s was uncalled for. ( Wasn't there something in the book about judgment as well? Great Christian attitude there, Jord(!)) But most of all, shouldn't the AMERICAN Idol remember that Americans have many varied beliefs?

To Kid Rock: You sounded great!

Did Hollywood Kill Anna Nicole Smith?

While the definitive cause of Anna Nicole Smith’s death probably won’t be in for weeks, regardless of the autopsy result, anyone who saw her recent interviews on Entertainment Tonight could see she was obviously impaired by substance abuse. (When someone’s eyes are going in two different directions…) So, I’d like to talk about the addicted celebrity client.

Did Hollywood kill Anna Nicole Smith? Speaking as someone who grew up around chemical addiction in a small-town, non-showbiz family, I really don’t think so. I think the addiction gene or addictive personality (whatever your belief happens to be about the root cause) is either there, or it isn’t.

But, also speaking as someone who’s been in the role of agent, artist manager, and prior to that, as personal assistant, do I think Hollywood contributed to the death of Anna Nicole Smith? Absolutely.

When you have people making money from whatever the celebrity’s status quo is at a given moment, someone in the mix will have an interest in keeping the celebrity in that money-making status quo…Even at the risk of a self-destructive celebrity. (The same status-quo dynamic happens in non-showbiz families too, by the way, but because the motivation is usually more about fear of change than about big money, it’s less overt and is more subconscious.)

It comes down to the kind of people the celebrity surrounds him or herself with. If a celebrity with an addictive personality (or the addiction gene) is surrounded by “yes” people who tell them what they want to hear, that celebrity is going to be in trouble.

I’ve heard some managers and agents say, “It’s none of my business.”

I disagree. It is their business, and getting help for a troubled client is part of being a good manager or agent.

If you work in the industry long enough, you see first-hand that creativity is often borne of pain, and that many clients had troubled childhoods or estranged family relationships and seek fame as a way to fill a void. So to make money off that client and then ignore their need for professional help when that pain gets out of hand is not only irresponsible, it’s inexcusable.

If you have signing privileges (i.e., power of attorney) and can sign your clients’ name on contracts, it’s your business. If you travel in the immediate vicinity with your client (reports say at least 6 people were staying at the hotel with Anna Nicole Smith) or are privy to the details of your clients’ day to day life, it’s your business. If you have keys to your clients’ home, it’s not only your business, you have no excuse not to get them off to rehab ASAP. More than once if necessary.

(And I’m talking hard-core, real-deal rehab like-Betty Ford or Hazelton…not Rehab Lite.)

I’ve heard a lot of people comparing Anna Nicole’s death to that of Marilyn Monroe. I disagree with that as well. Marilyn died in 1962, pre-Betty Ford Center, when very little was known about addiction or even about the addictive nature of some of the prescription medications she was taking.

This is 2007, and we all know better.

Meanwhile, the headlines surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith are getting stranger by the minute…The latest, courtesy of MSNBC, is that Zsa Zsa Gabor’s 9th and current husband, Prince Frédéric von Anhalt, says he could be the baby’s father. And it gets even more bizarre: In his press conference today, Prince Frederic (who allegedly essentially bought his title) said Anna Nicole told him she’d always wanted to be a princess, so he’d tried to make that happen for her by attempting to adopt Anna Nicole. But, Prince Frederic said, Zsa Zsa wouldn’t sign the adoption papers. (I kid you not, folks. I saw him say this in the press conference with my own eyes.)

That all these people are coming out of the woodwork with press conferences after her death just proves my point: Anna Nicole needed someone to protect her. If not a good family, then at the least, by very good management…

Very good management does exist, by the way. But unfortunately it doesn’t usually make for very interesting headlines.

Copyright 2007 Randi Reed and MusicBizAdvice.com. All rights reserved.

Commentary on Stupid Things Celebrities Said in the Last 10 Days

Greetings from Los Angeles,

(8/11: I'm reposting this blog because after it posted correctly, it was either hacked and edited by someone unbeknownst to me, or Blogger went in and edited my comments.)

A few random comments on stupid things celebrities said in the past 10 days. I haven’t had dinner yet, so I’m feeling particularly acid tongued…

Mel Gibson (anti-Semitic and sexist remarks): As Donny Deutsch said on his show the other night, alcohol goes in, truth tends to come out, and something won’t come out that isn’t already in there. Hollywood needs to stand up and say how vile and hate-filled Mel’s comments were—especially given what’s happening across the Globe--and stop spinning it with the rehab excuse. Sure, he’ll be clean, which is admirable, but that’s no cure for hateful remarks about an entire group of people. Meanwhile, now where is that Moonshadows business card I grabbed last time I was there so I can put it on Ebay…?


Paris Hilton (didn’t know who Tony Blair is, and on E News said that she’s a like mixture of Princess Diana mixed with Marilyn Monroe): While it’s no surprise that Paris Hilton didn’t know who Tony Blair is, it is ridiculous that she’s continually rewarded for stupidity. As for her comparison of herself to Princess Di and Marilyn…Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe were intelligent and politically astute, so try again. Paris Hilton sets women back 50 years; there are plenty of intelligent beautiful women with beautiful wardrobes who should be given the airtime and ratings instead.

Lindsay Lohan’s mother Dina (said Morgan Creek Films came down too hard on her daughter by sending her a letter about her partying, adding “She’s just a young girl.”): She’s a young girl with multi-million dollar adult responsibilities that put food on the table for an entire crew of people. You can’t have it both ways. Maybe a little more conversation with Lindsay about less partying during the work week might have prevented the necessity of sending the letter.

Bono (who said on 60 Minutes that U2’s music will be around 100 years from now because their songs “have an emotional landscape”—meaning socially conscious lyrics--that were previously unheard of before): Oh, really? What about REM, Sting, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Neil Young, et al…

Elizabeth Hasselbeck (who went off on guest co-host Lisa Loeb about the Morning After Pill—which she seemed to have confused with ru-486-- on The View, prompting Barbara Walters to say, “Elizabeth. Calm down dear.”): Arrrrgh! Elizabeth Hasslebeck should get the facts right before spewing venom at a guest co-host. (Among other things, she got wrong the most commonly accepted medical definition of when conception occurs.) Since Elizabeth’s tirade helped spread misinformation to advance her own political beliefs, I compiled some information about the Morning After Pill and how it works, and put it in MusicBizAdvice.com’s Body and Soul Section. I used several sources to compile the information, but this one had a good list of Q&As about the subject.

(As to my opinion…Since the debate over when conception begins is currently largely dependent on someone’s religious beliefs, I think the government should stay out of it on the basis of religious freedom alone.)

Time to get that turkey sandwich on whole wheat…

RR

Copyright 2006 Randi Reed