Writer’s Note: I feel the need to quickly address ordinary victims of abuse. If celebrities hardly get their stories told, what happens to the woman on your street whose husband hits her behind closed doors? Or the boy you sit next to in class who’s verbally abused by his girlfriend if he doesn’t text her back immediately? They’re just as important, if not more. In fact, the only reason they aren’t mentioned directly in the story is because I didn’t think I could summarize their struggle in a few paragraphs. It’s worth its own entire article. Here’s a few from Affinity. Trying to squeeze it in while staying on point of this one would simply downplay the severity of their situation. With that in mind, I hope this article makes you think about how we handle celebrity cases, or rather, how we don’t.
TW: // AB– USE
Lindsay Lohan’s name has certain connotations. Some might think of her roles in “The Parent Trap” or “Mean Girls.” Others might bring up her reputation as the face of tabloid alcoholism, paparazzi photos of her walking out of an AA meeting, or hearing about how she broke her parole again. Though it’s arguably not as widely discussed, some might also remember her publicly accusing her father of child abuse a few years back, alongside her mother Dina.
Essentially, since her departure from her “Disney Days,” as they’re dubbed, Lohan’s gained status as a slurring, messy party girl. And while it’s not untrue to say she doesn’t seem to learn her lesson, a lot of people don’t seem to take into account she’s tried to turn herself around.
Which is actually rather unfair. We have a habit of dropping celebrities as soon as they begin to better themselves, and therefore aren’t attracting drama. And because of this, we always remember them as their drunk selves, but Lohan has actually done a lot to attempt to reform herself. And there’s a lot of evidence towards it, as well. For instance, this interview with Oprah where she cries tears of joy celebrating her sobriety.
And while she’s certainly ended up relapsing her fair share of times, some have begun to take advantage of it.
In this interview, she discusses the press falsifying stories about her “falling off the wagon,” and how even if the story could be completely fabricated, people might still believe she’s gone back to her old ways. This is the power in a negative news story; as soon as a hot piece of gossip comes out, a lot of us fail to question it.
Coverage of Lohan’s transformation, from a young starlet to the poster girl for “Hollywood breakdown,” has been largely negative. It’s hard to remember the last time a positive, uplifting story about this woman has come out. Everyone behind a keyboard loves to tear her down and act as if she hasn’t worked hard to try and put her life back together.
There’s a simple answer as to why this happens in the way that it does. So-called “journalists” don’t believe a post celebrating Lohan’s sobriety will get them views.
This isn’t a baseless accusation either. Many people who still consider her regularly newsworthy at all (TMZ and sites like it, mainly) are composed nearly entirely of clickbait, a sub-section of journalism based entirely on what’ll garner the most attention to the website, and therefore make the people behind it the most money. It’s less about insightful, thought-provoking stories and more about attention. And drama is the number one way to get an article on the map.
What’s a little frightening is the fact that it works. Harvey Levin, the founder and owner of TMZ, has an estimated net worth of $10 million. And while he’s certainly not on a Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian level, that’s relatively impressive for someone in the journalism profession. For reference, Jill Abramson, former executive editor of The New York Times, has an estimated net worth of $2 million.
That’s precisely why she’s never getting good press; the press themselves don’t feel like giving it to her. The story is influenced by the narrator, and Lohan’s is among the best examples of a warped, purposefully pessimistic perspective.
However, it’s not a stretch to think that in all this slander, someone would think to publish a story on Lohan’s abusive relationship.
This isn’t to say it hasn’t been written about at all. It has. In fact, a fair amount of respectable outlets have. The New York Daily News, Paper Magazine and Inquisitr have all published news stories about the turbulent relationship between her and Egor Tarabasov, a 23-year-old Russian businessman. However, it’s difficult to find the truth in this situation. Some outlets claim she’s breaking up with him, others swear they’re on a break and a few quote her on saying things along the lines of “she doesn’t have it in her heart to leave him.”
Breaking up with him wouldn’t be a surprise in any capacity. Videos have surfaced of Egor and Lohan physically fighting on a beach, and in early August, Lohan reportedly burst out screaming on her apartment balcony in England crying for help.
“Please, please! He just strangled me! He almost killed me!” She apparently cried in horror. It’s important to note that no one was charged in this incident.
It’s a quote that sounds like it could be straight out of the movie “Scream.” It’s horrific in the sense that it doesn’t feel real. And while the event did get coverage, perhaps it didn’t get the justice it deserved. The same could be said for the entire timeline of this domestic abuse.
I’ll go ahead and throw in some personal insight. Apparently a lot of people hadn’t even known about the situation until just a few days before I wrote this. I, myself, didn’t know until a few days before I wrote this. I found this out from my Twitter timeline, and having not heard about it in the past, decided to make and quote a few tweets about it. It ‘blew up’ a little, getting 250 retweets in 3 days. This isn’t to brag, it’s because I observed many people making their own tweets in response, or quoting mine, expressing shock about the situation itself and not knowing it’d even happened in the first place.
she's spoken in MULTIPLE interviews about his behavior, i haven't seen anyone discuss it. spread it around.https://t.co/q8UrXW6o0O
— umbreon (@evanklvsmki) August 23, 2016
Domestic abuse, especially in the world of celebrity journalism, is such a hot topic. If there’s even the slightest issue, or some sense of tension between a couple, there’s an article about it in a tabloid the next day accusing one of the two of beating the other. Hell, if he’s quick enough, Perez Hilton could have a post up within the hour.
Because behind the walls of gossip sites, there’s hardly such a thing as fact-checking. It’s how celebrity death rumors circulate so often, and even sometimes end up published on reliable, and not so reliable, news sources before they’re confirmed to be fake. Some sites will find a juicy, meaty story and sink their fangs into it before cutting it open to make sure it’s done. Sometimes, such as when TMZ broke the infamous “Ray Rice Elevator” story in 2014, this does them well and it puts them ahead of the game. But when they get it wrong or when they’re revealed to do something unethical, the little credibility they have starts to slip. In fact, when TMZ first reported that Prince had died, traditional media waited until the Associated Press confirmed it 17 minutes later to start writing. There’s a certain wariness behind sites in the same chord as TMZ due to their “trashy tabloid” reputation, and their practice of fueling off of drama, even if it means stirring some themselves.
Although many celebrities see this done to them time and time again, and it may just be Lohan’s time in the wringer every once in awhile, it’s mind-blowing that any notable person has to see themselves bastardized to the world for the sake of making some quick cash. You know what makes quick cash even if the work itself is painstakingly long? Good journalism.
But this isn’t a solution to the problem of clickbait and bad journalism, because clickbait isn’t intended to be good journalism in the first place. It’s not meant to be groundbreaking or even tell a unique story. It’s all about the money.
In fact, there’s nothing anyone can really do about this type of content. We can’t stop it from being printed. TMZ has been sued in the past for various reasons, but it’s never stopped them from continuing in their ways, if not restricting them a bit. For example, Jared Leto, who sued on account of copyright infringement in January. But as was said earlier, it’s not going to bring TMZ down. Nothing seems to be able to. The only way to cut this off is to get people to stop giving them money, which, sadly, is never going to happen.
In rare cases, gossip sites being so untouchable and powerful can be a good thing. For one thing, TMZ was among those reporting on Lohan’s abuse story, which might have gotten the ball rolling a little. When these sites make an effort to try to help celebrities instead of demonizing them, they actually aren’t so bad. The issue is how uncommon an occasion that is.
We were grossly uninformed of the story of Lohan’s abuse. The conclusion on this story, as was mentioned earlier, is still written to be up in the air. Through shot-down pregnancy rumors to whispers of her alcoholism coming back, it seems the press forgot about the actual issue at hand – her abusive fiancé.
She’s decided to leave him, if that’s what you’ve stuck around this long for. She’s quoted on saying, “No woman can be hit and stay with that person if that person isn’t prepared to say sorry.” Apparently, he wasn’t.
The real issue though, is how little it was discussed in general. Both particularly pertaining to Lohan, and how victims of domestic abuse are portrayed, particularly in tabloid journalism. Think of Amber Heard, who was called a “gold digger” when she accused her ex-husband Johnny Depp of abusing her. Or Evan Peters, who was abused by Emma Roberts in 2013 and emasculated in the media because of it. As mentioned earlier, domestic abuse is a hot topic in celebrity journalism. But that doesn’t mean it’s always covered or even received by the audience fairly.
Celebrities are often considered to have put themselves in the situation, or are forced to listen to the general public blame it on substance abuse, especially in Lohan’s case. If it’s not that, though, it’s the incredibly vague buzzwords of “fame” and “money.” “Hollywood corruption” is usually thrown in there too. But this is all incredibly inaccurate. Famous people fall victim to struggle just as ordinary citizens do. Those who are abused, and those who are abusers, should not be treated differently because of their superstar reputation.
Perhaps it’s time the media caught up with that sentiment.
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