Kiley Rourke, Fame, Fortune, and the Cracks Under Pressure

Being in the spotlight and limelight of fame looks exciting (from the outside), it’s everyone’s dream until it comes true. Invasion of privacy, constant paparazzi and stress on every decision made and every word spoken or written can be so stressful that celebrities feel pushed to the only substances that look like the light at the end of the tunnel. Illegal and prescription drugs, as well as alcohol, have become the net under the trapeze artist. After a long day, celebrities turn to and trust drugs to save them and give them a sense of the freedom they once had and long to have again. Throughout history, so many “accidental” deaths have occurred that the line between accidental and suicide blurs constantly, but the continual pattern is completely there. The spotlight has an effect on a person as history has proven time and time again.

We’re all human, in the same fundamental ways, in the sense that we’ve all experienced a lot of pressure on us, but no one can ever truly know what someone else is going through. What would you do if you were on camera almost every waking hour of the day? How would you feel if you were the most sexualized person

of the time period? What would it be like to have every mistake you ever made written about and posted on social media, in magazines, and on the news? How would you feel if you were the headline of every tabloid in the supermarket? If you really want to know, just step into a celebrities’ shoes.

Hundreds of celebrities over the years have admitted to substance abuse - whether that be with illegal drugs or with alcohol - and while some have proven to overcome the pressure and reinvent themselves, others weren’t so lucky. According to Peace Valley Recovery - a group of doctors, therapists, and medical professionals who use their website and their organization to spread awareness and help those in need - some of today’s most famous celebrities, like Avengers star Robert Downey Jr. and rapper Macklemore have both admitted to receiving help and have gotten better (Redwine). However, not every celebrity’s story ends with a happily ever after, like you’ll see, most succumb to the pressure of stardom.

From depression to trouble sleeping, the smallest pill or the tiniest bit of alcohol can be all someone needs to feel relief or to relax for the first time. From Marilyn Monroe to Heath Ledger to Kurt Cobain, the pattern has remained the same. But if we’re going to analyze a pattern like this, we might as well start with one of the most infamous of all. Let’s dive straight into America’s sweetheart, the blonde bombshell herself, known worldwide as Miss Marilyn Monroe. …

The unknown Norma Jeane was now growing into her new, invented household name: Marilyn Monroe. Her picture was in magazines and newspapers all over the country, as she was receiving claim and criticism from critics and fans alike. …Marilyn began showing serious signs of depression and anxiety. Miss Monroe showed increasing “...signs of personal deterioration...her insomnia and addiction to sleeping drugs, her reliance of psychiatric support... the pressures of the studios and the press...” and the toll all of it was beginning to take was becoming more apparent by the day (Dictionary of American Biography). As time grew on and she had filed her third divorce Marilyn was showing signs that the stardom she had once dreamed of and longed for, was beginning to be her downfall. She was becoming hooked, to the point where sleeping pills were a necessity and her lateness to work was slowly killing her reputation.

But let’s take a second to think about Marilyn. The poor woman has spent her childhood in and out of orphanages, been married and divorced three times, has never been able to bare child, her career is struggling by this point, and still she is the headline everyone wants to read. So of course when she sang happy birthday to President Kennedy in her shimmering dress in front of thousands of people while on live television, the press had a field day. And of course there are skeptics and conspiracy theorists that believe the Kennedy’s are the true killers behind

Miss Monroe’s death, and some who even claim she’s alive to this day. However, people refuse to look past her recurring pattern, they’re consistently looking beyond the fact that Marilyn used “Alcohol and barbiturates…” to “... bolster her confidence.” (Baughman, et al.). Being the most infamous and wanted woman in America has to be exhausting, and the confidence you get from strangers can only take you so far, its the confidence and praise from loved ones that we truly want. With three divorces and a mother in a mental institution, she never received what she truly wanted and the bright white of barbiturates began to look more and more appetizing.

Inevitably, like many others, Marilyn lost her hard fought battle with herself. You can’t live if you don’t trust and love yourself. Her mother’s downfall into mental problems caused her to constantly check over her shoulder, desperately looking to see if insanity was following her around as well. For a woman as beloved as she was you would think she would love herself and her body and have the confidence in herself that everyone else seemed to have in her. However, how do you love a body that truly no longer belongs to you? She was consistently left to be put on display for all the newspapers and all of the men of America to see, even in her death.

Being the voice of a generation, a talented, young actor with so much left to accomplish, and being the most sexualized person in America are some of the biggest and most harmful pressures that anyone could ever face. Next time you think to yourself “My god Britney Spears is the craziest celebrity”, think what made her that way. These patterns have to be analyzed. We need to see these patterns in order to prevent them. We are pushing these celebrities to their breaking point as if they are just elephants and lions and clowns at a circus. They aren’t only here to put on a show, we need to appreciate the sacrifices they make before their gone. Although they’re gone we have to appreciate the fact that they can continually live on through music and film and understand the talent and passion they brought to the world.

*Works Cited page available upon request.