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Saturday 7 January 2017

Celebrity Failures

How many celebrities do you admire? None? Same here. The world seems full of the pests promoting themselves.

For example, the recent story about celebrity cook Jamie Oliver closing six of his Italian restaurants ought to attract a certain amount of sympathy, at least for the job losses it represents. Yet however much I rummage through my conscience I cannot find a single atom of sympathy. Nothing.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is closing six of his 42 UK Jamie's Italian restaurants.

The Aberdeen, Cheltenham, Exeter, Tunbridge Wells and in London, the Ludgate and Richmond outlets are all scheduled to close soon.

The move will affect 120 staff, whom the company said it would try to place in other parts of the chain.

The company said that the market was "tough" and the uncertainties caused by Brexit had intensified the pressures.


If anything I’m very mildly pleased to see a celebrity failure without being entirely sure why that might be. Perhaps there is a sense that celebrity success is so often undeserved, but for all I know it might be deserved in Jamie Oliver’s case. Yet somehow I feel it isn't. 

What grates is his willingness to mix with politics, to involve himself in official attempts to dictate what children ought to eat. These things ought to be worthy but in his hands they are not. Perhaps we have reached a stage where celebrity itself is a contaminant. The idea that famous people should be listened to because they are famous - it often doesn't work. And when that person also comes across as a bit of a git...

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I am sick and tired of Celebrities! I grew up in a time when there were a small number of famous people and, if you read the right trash, they would get an occasional mention but the situation today is simply ridiculous!

Scrobs. said...

I think there's a certain gene in these people, where their minds and bodies believe that they're special. This gene manifests itself in a song or a small part in a play, but the gene then feeds on the adrenalin, and whooooosh, the person is elevated to being a luvvie, or worse, a politician!

Or even much worse, someone invited onto the BBC for their 'views'!

wiggiatlarge said...

Jamie Oliver is a classic vase of someone with little talent making good financially, it is difficult to see how someone who worked in the kitchen of his parents pub in Essex and then worked as a pastry chef for Carluccios London restaurant could rise so high.
Good luck to anyone who makes a fortune, but why did the BBC pick him from his London job to present a TV program, they saw something that obviously appeals to a large section of the public in the celebrity riven world we live in now that I don't, the fake cockney attributes perhaps ?
I had a young lad working for me a few years ago, when asked if he had a good week end he said he and his wife went to "Jamies" parents pub for a meal, it was spoken in the manner of pop group groupie as though through going to his parents pub it moved him closer to the messiah, I worry sometimes about our young.

James Higham said...

Such a hypocrite and so dishonest. Poor food at outrageous prices, not Brexit. I had some time for him over healthy eating but no more.

Demetrius said...

The restaurant trade is a tricky one and always has been. In our town the turnover is high and fashion, cost and price all matter. Italian food is now so yesterday in any case, speaking as one who was often browsing in Soho in the past. As for Jamie, a TV made celeb', he has had his run and now really has to get the business models right. But he, and others, are up against it.

A K Haart said...

Henry - I agree, celebrity culture is of the most dismal aspects of modern life. Many of them seem to have no talent whatever beyond the ability to promote themselves.

Scrobs - you could be right - the compulsive display gene. 'Look at me I'm special.'

Wiggia - I'm sure it is partly accidental, the BBC could have picked someone else who would have responded in much the same way. Jamie Oliver was probably in the right place at the right time.

James - that seems to be the explanation, mediocre food at silly prices. Nothing to do with Brexit.

Demetrius - yes, as the celebrity shine tarnishes business acumen has to keep the show on the road. If it isn't there then the obvious consequences follow.

wiggiatlarge said...

I don't know if this brings anything to the table !

Yet parts ring true.................

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/08/boastful-narcissistic-overpriced-welcome-to-jamies-italian/