Radio Australia Today Editorial

Scarlett Johansson Gets Married and the World Goes Crazy

29 September 2008

Scarlett Johansson was pretty good in Lost in Translation. She was as bright and refreshing as Bill Murray’s character was perfectly played as jaded and disillusioned. I think it was that point in her career when Scarlett became the world’s darling, kind of like how Sandra Bullock won our hearts the moment she tripped over on the tarmac in Miss Congeniality (the first one, the good one).

But you’ve got to ask, why is her wedding such a big interest thing today? She’s married Ryan Reynolds who, we are told in all the news bulletins is thirty-one and Canadian..

To be honest, I thought Scarlett was already married. Or divorced. Or a mother. Or something.

For those thrilled by the nuptuals of someone they don’t know, I have to ask you, what is her latest film? If you know that, then maybe you will be enough of a fan to really be thrilled by the fact that she’s thrown a garter.

There really is a fixation, perhaps on obligatory fixation in the media to announce weddings, engagements, rehab check-ins, affairs and divorces.

Does it really matter? Paul Newman died on the weekend, and Hollywood press did what what it does best: celebrated the life of a great actor. He and his wife Joanne Woodward was not a couple that brought gossip. Reporters, out of respect, stuck to reporting their work, not trying to find personal stuff to fill the pages of the glossies. It was refreshing.

Personal lives can be interesting (see Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears), but they are just people who do a job for a living. Maybe we should just think, for a second, about how gossip pages and TV segments, are taking away from that. Amy Winehouse is a great singer. Why should be care about the rest of her life.

Or even more: why should we even be talking about the rest of her life. It’s her business. Really.

Meanwhile, I’m going off to see what Scarlett Johansson’s latest film is.

– Phil