Sporting celebrities right to be wary of selfie harm
Ever-present mobiles can add an unsavoury edge to public encounters with the stars, writes James Corrigan
‘I grabbed his head, but then thought, Cameras are everywhere – this could go badly wrong’
Quora, the highly successful question-andanswer website, posted a query the other day wondering why “celebrities do not tend to hang around with common people?”
The most popular reply concluded thus – “because they get hassled all the time”. Absurdly simple, but extremely explanatory.
Celebrity comes in many forms, as does hassle. If it is autographhunters – or as they are now, selfie-hunters – who are causing offence, then sympathy for the stars should and will be in short supply.
It is what happens when it goes too far. In the past few weeks, sport has witnessed a rugby coach being abused on a train, an 81-year-old football chairman feeling threatened getting into his Rolls-royce in a stadium car park, and a former player turned pundit being goaded by another driver as they drove along a motorway.
How did they respond? Eddie Jones hurried off, David Gold pleaded for some humanity and Jamie Carragher wound down the window and spat into the grinning goon’s banter wagon.
How did we respond? Jones commanded almost unanimous sympathy, the majority pitied Gold, and Carragher was roundly castigated, primarily because there was a 14-year-old in the other vehicle. Three reactions to three situations.
Yet if you cannot spot the trend in these supposedly unconnected incidents then you are peering too closely in fascination or disgust at the footage and not standing back and grasping this very modern scenario.
It is all about “celebrities being hassled” and the evergrowing disconnect between the paying, sometimes baying, public. In truth, this has been going on forever. The difference now is that there always seems to be someone close by – by accident or design – to film on a mobile.
Their documentarymaking instinct is creating a rapidly developing cottage industry. The media is buying up the “evidence” and there is a real and present danger of “copy-prat” ambushes.
Naturally, the celebrities are becoming increasingly cautious and suspicious and, with all the recriminations in the Carragher case, this paranoia will, of course, only intensify.
This week, Andrew Flintoff discussed the issue on the BBC and his account of a late-night melee will surely strike a chord with each and every sporting hero. It starts off good natured, soon turns ugly and, but for the grace of God, is on Youtube in a few hours.
“Two lads approached me, in their early twenties, and they’ve had a couple,” Flintoff said. “One came over and said he got into cricket because of me. Then his mate got right in my face and raised his hands. At that point, I was on alert. He half-slapped me across my face.
“So, I grabbed his head and pushed him down and put his head on the pavement. And then I thought to myself, ‘There are cameras everywhere – this could go badly wrong’.”
Flintoff believes he was lucky and is relieved that he now abstains from alcohol. “I was in control of what I was doing, I was clear of mind and I was genuinely trying to defend myself and defuse the situation,” he recalled.
That is as maybe, but Flintoff acknowledges it is only how it looks on a smartphone or PC that counts in the court of public opinion. Remember that when you next ask for a selfie.
Yes, it should be no hassle at all. But to the celebrities, hassle now has an uncanny way of escalating and being recorded for our entertainment.