There is something inherently wrong with an industry that allows its chief assets to be placed in such a precarious position that the slightest bump in the road can send the asset spiraling out of control or off its perch. Basing a career on an image that is unsustainable is unwise and a gamble. But life is filled with gamblers. If the payout is big enough, the gambler will risk being unwise.
So what is the goal that the development team wants to accomplish for the artist? Ultimately, most people want fame and to make a lot of money. So the artist has talent, maybe a little or maybe a lot. It really does not matter. There are artists with a wee bit of talent, a lot of push, some luck—you know the right place at the right time or born under the right stars. Whatever, but they catapult to the neighboring galaxy. The artist and the spin-doctors come up with an image to project to the audience.
We have all witnessed artist after artist fall from grace. To put it in the vernacular, star after star burn out. It has been said that Whitney was portrayed as a good girl. For the 16 (?) years she was married to Bobby Brown, everybody and their momma were baffled as to what she saw in him. Whitney is making an impressive comeback. Clive Davis—bless his heart—came to her rescue and apparently did what no one else was able to do. Kudos to Clive. After all, was it not Clive who created her image the first time around?
We are well aware that not every actor’s career ends in shambles and shame. The late Paul Newman comes to mind for example--once divorced and twice married. During the time of his first marriage, divorce was not without its stigma. Yet his career survived. Newman and second wife Joanna Woodard, with five decades of matrimonial relationship, became the poster-couple proof that a marriage can last until death do we part.
So we come to Tiger Woods. He was a child when his career began. He had been under the tutelage of his father until the senior Woods’ death. Was it so much an image his development team manufactured, or was he, up to that point, just a good kid. To qualify good kid, I mean good in the sense he was not a hooligan. We all think our kids are good. Just like our parents thought we were good. There is a Scripture that says all our righteousness is like fifthly rags. You get the point. So when Tiger comes out of his bag, the world is aghast. Why? We never knew this person. How can we possibly be disappointed by the actions of someone we do not know? And if he committed adultery, is that not between Tiger and his wife? Dare America judge this man when the value on smut is at a premium in this country? Case in point Ms. Paris Hilton. Her only claim to fame was an alleged sex video—not a professionally produced porn film, mind you—but a video with her boyfriend. She reported earned $22 million somewhere between 2007 and 2008.
So what is the solution? Are the expectations placed on these individuals too high? Are they and their team responsible for the illusion and subsequently are solely responsible when the film gets tangled in the projector, leaving the audience hanging in the middle of the scene? Perhaps. After all, each of us is the captain of our own destiny and the master of our own soul. In creating an illusion of myself, or giving permission for such an illusion to be created, I bare that responsibility for the possibility that it may dissolve. The dissolution of the image is all the more apt, when the illusion depends on human efforts to keep it afloat.
This is the United States of America, land of the image-makers. If you are looking to make it big you have two sure shots—your ascent and your descent. Plan them both wisely. With the right exit strategy, your last paycheck could be bigger than the preceding ones combined. Where does Tiger go from here? Anywhere he wants to go. He doesn’t need Gillette, Gatorade, or Nike. Even if his wife takes half of everything he has . . . he is now free to move about the cabin.
Imagine that.
