Deconstructing Billy-Bob

I really enjoyed an analysis of the Billy Bob Thornton hissy-fit that was published in the Globe and Mail today. Columnist Russell Smith says that stars in the U.S. are far too used to dictating terms to the media, and he wonders what it would be like if more journalists had the cojones that Jian Ghomeshi did:

Ghomeshi’s gentle demolition of the childish star, and the subsequent popular revulsion toward the guy who insulted Canadian audiences, was so discomfiting that Thornton’s band cancelled the rest of their Canadian tour. (The band’s website claims they got the flu. It’s the kind of flu that comes when you’re booed and mocked on your opening night. Yikes, that mashed potato was hot!)

But the little kerfuffle was also instructive. It can teach us a lot about the uneasy relationship between the arts media and the most popular entertainers.

Thornton was obviously under a misconception about the kind of broadcaster he had agreed to work with. He’s a guy who is used to dictating terms to the media. His publicists no doubt don’t really think of the media as media at all, but as a branch of the marketing department.

I’m not usually a big fan of Smith’s columns, which tend towards the trite and the “fashion”able. But this one’s worth reading.