California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state lockdown yesterday to curb the spread of Covid-19. Not that this is important to the world, big picture, but we are a pop culture website after all so I’m here to talk briefly about the impact this will have on Hollywood, specifically the celebrity ecosystem. As much as celebrities claim to hate paparazzi, the paps are a part of the ecosystem and they can be a delivery service for celebrities who have something to say, or show, but who don’t want us to think they’re saying it or showing it on purpose. As the gossip public has become more aware of this practice, celebrities have gotten subtler about their paparazzi thirst but let’s not pretend that many celebrities out there don’t engage in the practice. Not all, but a lot of them do.
Now that LA is on lockdown though, in theory, the paps shouldn’t be out there taking pictures of people going to dinner or the grocery store or out for a walk. But there’s always social media, right? If pap activity slows down, Twitter and Instagram and TikTok celebrity activity is expected to increase. To encourage the audience to continue social distancing, of course, but also because for celebrities, the greatest fear is being forgotten.
Still, it’s one thing to go live on IG or pump out more stories and share #quarantunes, etc, but … like… what about the outfits!? There are certain celebrities who rely on pap photos to capture their OOTW, walking down a sidewalk, all nonchalant, because they can’t be seen to overload on the thirst on social media. Curious to see how that plays out over the coming weeks as they may not be able to rely on photographers.
And then there’s the question of beauty treatments, as Duana and I discussed on the最新一集的Show Your Work. Lockdown means everything but essential services gets locked down. In the real world, facials and Botox and fillers etc are not essential services. In Hollywood… well…
So will celebrity beauty technicians be making more house calls to provide treatments? How safe is that? Social distancing means not having people over, not having dinner parties, or Botox parties. It’s limiting your contact to, ideally, only the people in your household. Otherwise you risk bring the virus from home to home to home. How’s THAT going to go over in this town?!
Attached – Kate Hudson out this week in her neighbourhood, getting fresh air while observing social distancing.
