Not the news of Tunisia’s regime change or Egypt’s opening of the Suez Canal or the people of Libya who are desperately trying to stay alive, when their own leader declared a virtual war on them. Or the happenings in Bahrain, Yemen or Iran. Rather, so many of my incredibly smart friends and colleagues are calling, texting and tweeting the big news of who just got themselves a one time appearance on a TV show.
Because where I live, in the Big Orange, it is “pilot season.” Here, news is released by the hour on who has captured the lead, co-lead, and even a guest spot on every single “pilot” for next years development slate on network television – most of which will never even make it on the air. A pilot is a one-time trial run, used as an example of what a TV series about its subject matter would entail. It is clearly no indication of whether or not it would make a good series because most that do become a weekly show, immediately fail. I know that revolutions and celebrity sightings are the most important news to cover (and not always in that order) but I am ready to admit, that both news feeds are not really worth the anxiety they are causing me as I sit in my little office watching these dramas play out in real time from my cushy chair.
Having attained a bachelor’s degree in theatre some years ago, I work regularly as an actress and can also spot drama from really far away. Both sets of headlines like, “Eva Amurri cast in CBS pilot” and “Gadhafi will fight until he spills his last drop of blood” make my heart skip a beat. Both make me kind of fearful. One gives me anxiety that I must hurry up and get a job (like Eva) and the other, that if the political structure in most of Arabia fails, hooray for the protestors but isn’t it a fifty-fifty shot that this could be better or worse for the safety of America?
Photos featuring Eva’s shoes on a red carpet are splashed around for days after she achieves her pilot success. As are the footwear of thousands of brave pioneers who are waving their shoes at their own military and police forces, as well as their televisions that are showing one leader after another threatening to continue to be their despot. And sadly, at times Eva seems to have more followers on some social networking sites and gets much more air time at drinks and dinner conversations around my hood than those with their lives at stake.
But I’ve now realized that neither one of these news stories are really doing me any good as I lay awake in bed catastrophisizing about them both. I have my own pilot now, too, (no thanks to worrying about keeping up with the Jones’s or the Amurri’s, but perhaps due to that said theatre degree) and still I feel nervous as every other actress I’ve ever met gets her own wanna-be TV show. Primarily because there is so much hoop-la about it. Just like the happiness and relief I feel after watching so many hard-won success stories in Egypt, that can then be immediately eviscerated into new fears when the Suez Canal is opened to Iran and Israel is feeling provoked.
So basically, I’m thinking I have to get one of my pairs of shoes on, and walk the hell away from my computer and stop watching the news as it cycles because it is not informing me on anything new every single hour of the day. Rather, the repetition of the same news told in a slightly more jarring way, is stressing me out to no end. Both the fluff pieces considered headline news where I live and the actual headline news that I cannot take part in at all, no matter how much the liberal drama student in me would like to save the world.
Congrats on landing a new gig. Bravo!
why thank you. df
I love your blog posts, always on point with what’s going on and entertaining!
Wow, reading this was almost cathartic for me. In my little world where the only reason to own a tv is for CNN and MSNBC, and you are primarily a writer, world news and politics are the things that keep me up at night. I really look down on those who know nothing of politics or world events, but can spend most of the day talking about what some celebrity was wearing, what happened on american idol, or what famous couple broke up. They also seem to be very emotionally attached to tv shows and tv characters and get just as upset over thngs that happen on these shows as I do about real events. But I suppose that me catastrophizing over real-world events that I have no control over is no better than someone else catastrophizing over some hollywood startlet, tv show, etc.
Ya know, you writing articles that make me think or make me laugh just prolong my little fantasy that you are a writer who just happens to do some acting on the side. I really will try to watch Council of Dads, but on the rare occasions when I do watch a tv show and like it, i tend to forget what night it is on, or I just forget about it altogether. But I will keep reading your articles, because in my lworld, you are a writer.
a you are terrific vgnewsom. my point exactly. frivolous news or real headline news, we are all monday morning quaterbacking nonetheless. thank you for commenting~ df
i think the news in California is totally ridiculous
The obsession with celebrity – or five minutes of fame losers – is gross. Did you see that Jimmy Kimmel being on an island during the Tsunami in Japan made top of the charts on Yahoo ? I don’t think his vacation during an enormous natural disaster warrants any mention even if Jimmy Kimmel was lost at sea
what is you pilot?
oh I just found your pilot on the site
I just heard Ms Farr was sick. I wish I could bring you some Motza Ball soup
thanks Gareth. I’m feeling much better. ready to get to work. even on saturdays for the rest of this month…
Of Course Diane makes a really good point that although listening to celebrity news all day is absurd, listening to horror stories from around the world all day long is pointless, too. Not to say that stories of real human triumph and tragedy are now newsworthy. They are. However, our news coverage nowadays is obsessive and focused on death and fear. (Or celebrity babies.) I try not to listen to the news but only read it on my computer when I’m ready to hear all the bad.
I have a news alert on my computer for news on Diane Farr.
I have found the news reports from the middle east very disturbing but I do think they are important to be covered. We are lucky to live in a country where we see all the news that is available. That is what people are fighting for.
thanks for the comments Joe Casen but I would beg to differ that we see ALL the news that is available. Looking at British newspapers for only six months has completely awakened me to just how slanted any one countries news is. df
watching BBC also demonstrates how slanted the news that we get in the U.S. is.
There is a group called Reporters Without Borders that publishes a ranking of countries based on their press freedom. They look at how much pressure there is on the press to either avoid or whitewash certain topics. In 2010, the U.S. ranked #20, which is not all that great considering we consider ourselves such a free country.
But, that ranking is an improvement from the Bush years when we were ranked in the 40s and 50s. Just look at the way our invasion of Iraq was handled, with no one in the mainstream press daring to criticize the decision to invade Iraq, or daring to say that there are no WMD’s, and playing along with the “if you don’t support the president, you are not patriotic” views. That entire situation certainly indicates how slanted our news is, and how much politics determine what the U.S. media reports.
Okay, I am going to go back to not thinking about the state of the world, because as DF so eloquently pointed out, it does not benefit me in any way to catastrophize over events I have no control over.
so so interesting! number 20 still kinda sucks!
yeah number 20 absolutely sucks compared to what we should be, but still, it’s a whole lot better than it was under GWB…I better stop now…ya never know, you might have some republican fans, and I’ll surely piss them off if I keep going