All for showmance! - Celebrity romances have turned into public displays of affection. Nona Walia reports on love that pays
Fame-hungry couples are enjoying high-profile showmance. Love and romance may be dead in the celebrity world but showmance isn't. Anushka Sharma flirted with her co-actor Ranveer Singh on and off-screen and loved the fact they were being called a 'couple'. Ashmit Patel and Veena Malik's love talk made sure the TRPs went up, as they got saucy on screen. After exiting from the Bigg Boss house, they continued their love drama for quite some time to capitalise on their chemistry. Rahul Mahajan and Dimpy's onscreen wedding made her a national celebrity.
New-age celebrity couples are romancing each other just to be in the public eye. There's Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, who came together as a couple for two series of Newlyweds and then separated... Liz Hurley's PDA with Shane Warne has her fans more interested in their public kissing than in her outfit. Says author Anil Dharker, "In a world of showbiz, celebrities use romance to further their own careers, as magazines are dying for a scoop on their private lives. The actual romance may not be happening if you're really doing everything in public eye. Real romances happen discreetly. Saif and Kareena kept their relationship low-key and didn't discuss their romance for a long time."
All for showmance!
Love on display!
Kim Kardashian's 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries made cool millions through the rather public love story. However, the King and Queen of Showmance have been Katie Price and Peter Andre as they wed in a pink Cinderella-themed extravaganza, but not before selling the rights for £2 million, of course.
The couple met on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Katie Price married cage fighter Alex Reid in Vegas last year after a whirlwind "romance" and they soon split up after giving exclusive rights of their wedding pictures to a magazine. They had a showmance break-up on television. Says London-based showbiz writer Rav Singh, "Celebrity romances played out on the screen is always a ratings grabber. People love to see couples argue in front of them. This makes them feel better in their own lives. But having said that, the Kardashians have made millions for playing out their relationships on TV."
Is this showmance style of love here to stay? "Yes," says Prof Pramod K Nayar, author of Seeing Stars Spectacle, Society and Celebrity Culture, "Showmance is also driven by the peculiarities of celeb life - everything private about them has to be in the public eye. Hence, a certain public expression of intimacy, comfort level between them is required of them. The private has to be publicised. Different cultures demand different things of their celebrities, but most demand that even celebrity couples endorse the 'happy family' norm. So it is not that it is a show of romance alone, it is a 'showing-off ' because they in a sense stand for our ideals of marriage, partnership, family."
The money-spinning power couples love what showmance does to their lives and careers. Hookups to grab eyeballs are redefining love in showbiz world. Says London-based Meena Khera, publicist to Hollywood stars like Jude Law, "Leading stars have always alluded to some behind-the-scenes frisson to promote hype, intrigue and, more importantly, create more fame and audience figures! Also, think back to old Hollywood where publicists had to pair two leading stars together to p r o m o t e their film or hide someone's sexuality, for example, Rock Hudson , Mont - gomery Clift , etc.
It's more prominent because 'showmances' have been exposed and exploited too much in modern times, especially with the explosion of reality s h ow s . They've become big business. I would love to go back to the golden age where less was more!"
Capitalising on romance
Isn't the Brangelina love story the biggest showmance of this decade? But is it wrong for a celeb couple to capitalise on their romance? Says image guru Dilip Cherian, "We derive voyeuristic pleasures from the lives of those we admire or aspire to be. It is a truism of our celebrity-drenched era that privacy is long dead and buried." But there is another point of view we cannot ignore - that of the viewer. Showmance allows the innate paparazzi trait in us to find avenues for indulgence.
In a world where relationships are shortlived, is celebrity romance only about showing off? Says writer Paro Anand, "It's also a reflection of relationships in the real world that are show-offish." Sometimes playing cupid are high-powered agents. Author Advaita Kala agrees, "Celebrities, especially those with the aim of making it to the A-list, find this a good way of staying in the public eye." Says sociologist Patricia Uberoi, "Page 3 love is almost a fantasy without reality. This pretence doesn't have any real love in it." But the showmance must go on! ( indiatimes.com )
Fame-hungry couples are enjoying high-profile showmance. Love and romance may be dead in the celebrity world but showmance isn't. Anushka Sharma flirted with her co-actor Ranveer Singh on and off-screen and loved the fact they were being called a 'couple'. Ashmit Patel and Veena Malik's love talk made sure the TRPs went up, as they got saucy on screen. After exiting from the Bigg Boss house, they continued their love drama for quite some time to capitalise on their chemistry. Rahul Mahajan and Dimpy's onscreen wedding made her a national celebrity.
New-age celebrity couples are romancing each other just to be in the public eye. There's Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, who came together as a couple for two series of Newlyweds and then separated... Liz Hurley's PDA with Shane Warne has her fans more interested in their public kissing than in her outfit. Says author Anil Dharker, "In a world of showbiz, celebrities use romance to further their own careers, as magazines are dying for a scoop on their private lives. The actual romance may not be happening if you're really doing everything in public eye. Real romances happen discreetly. Saif and Kareena kept their relationship low-key and didn't discuss their romance for a long time."
All for showmance!
Love on display!
Kim Kardashian's 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries made cool millions through the rather public love story. However, the King and Queen of Showmance have been Katie Price and Peter Andre as they wed in a pink Cinderella-themed extravaganza, but not before selling the rights for £2 million, of course.
The couple met on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Katie Price married cage fighter Alex Reid in Vegas last year after a whirlwind "romance" and they soon split up after giving exclusive rights of their wedding pictures to a magazine. They had a showmance break-up on television. Says London-based showbiz writer Rav Singh, "Celebrity romances played out on the screen is always a ratings grabber. People love to see couples argue in front of them. This makes them feel better in their own lives. But having said that, the Kardashians have made millions for playing out their relationships on TV."
Is this showmance style of love here to stay? "Yes," says Prof Pramod K Nayar, author of Seeing Stars Spectacle, Society and Celebrity Culture, "Showmance is also driven by the peculiarities of celeb life - everything private about them has to be in the public eye. Hence, a certain public expression of intimacy, comfort level between them is required of them. The private has to be publicised. Different cultures demand different things of their celebrities, but most demand that even celebrity couples endorse the 'happy family' norm. So it is not that it is a show of romance alone, it is a 'showing-off ' because they in a sense stand for our ideals of marriage, partnership, family."
The money-spinning power couples love what showmance does to their lives and careers. Hookups to grab eyeballs are redefining love in showbiz world. Says London-based Meena Khera, publicist to Hollywood stars like Jude Law, "Leading stars have always alluded to some behind-the-scenes frisson to promote hype, intrigue and, more importantly, create more fame and audience figures! Also, think back to old Hollywood where publicists had to pair two leading stars together to p r o m o t e their film or hide someone's sexuality, for example, Rock Hudson , Mont - gomery Clift , etc.
It's more prominent because 'showmances' have been exposed and exploited too much in modern times, especially with the explosion of reality s h ow s . They've become big business. I would love to go back to the golden age where less was more!"
Capitalising on romance
Isn't the Brangelina love story the biggest showmance of this decade? But is it wrong for a celeb couple to capitalise on their romance? Says image guru Dilip Cherian, "We derive voyeuristic pleasures from the lives of those we admire or aspire to be. It is a truism of our celebrity-drenched era that privacy is long dead and buried." But there is another point of view we cannot ignore - that of the viewer. Showmance allows the innate paparazzi trait in us to find avenues for indulgence.
In a world where relationships are shortlived, is celebrity romance only about showing off? Says writer Paro Anand, "It's also a reflection of relationships in the real world that are show-offish." Sometimes playing cupid are high-powered agents. Author Advaita Kala agrees, "Celebrities, especially those with the aim of making it to the A-list, find this a good way of staying in the public eye." Says sociologist Patricia Uberoi, "Page 3 love is almost a fantasy without reality. This pretence doesn't have any real love in it." But the showmance must go on! ( indiatimes.com )
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