Brian Williams opened the NBC Evening News with a striking observation tonight. The editors had intended, he said, to lead with the death of Farrah Fawcett, but then Michael. Jackson. Died.
Fawcett got, maybe, 30- to 45-seconds or so, after the coverage of Jackson’s death; certainly, much less than Jackson.
Yes, yes, Thriller, and all that. Serial pedophilia — not so much.
It reminds me of the day that John Belushi died, which is the same day that Russian immigrant and novelist Ayn Rand died.
Then, as now, the weirder, male, and better-known figure garnered the greatest attention, the other prominent death was an also-mentioned.
But Ayn Rand remains vital; Atlas Shrugged continues to sell, every year, in the neighborhood of 50,000-copies. Sales have increased since the government was forced last fall to acknowledge the economic tailspin, and “going Galt” has become an idiom.
Fawcett was not so creative as Rand. She appeared in the Charlie’s Angels television program for a single season, made a big impression with all that hair and that little breathless voice, and then struck out to do more interesting things. She never quite succeeded; she wasn’t much of an actress, really, and Jill Munroe is who viewers wanted anyway.
She became one of those famous-for-being-famous people whom everyone knew, or knew of, but didn’t seem to actually be doing much of anything at all.
And then she got cancer, of a sort caused by the same human papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer, and became at last a bona fide star of affecting documentaries about her illness and looming death; they continue, and will for years to come, to influence young women to get the papilloma vaccination.
Michael Jackson and John Belushi both abused and exhausted their talents and their names had become punch-lines by the time of their deaths. But in the long view Ayn Rand and Farrah Fawcett, less remarked, almost certainly leave larger and more wholesome legacies.
That’s show biz, I guess.
Maddeningly, that same crowd who condemn the papilloma vaccination for young women on fears that it may lead to promiscuity are racing to proclaim God’s judgment on Michael Jackson. I won’t link to them but, if you can stand it, search Google on “Michael Jackson” +”God’s judgment” and look around.
Damn them all.
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