Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Factor-factor Divorce Among Celebrities in Malaysia

Prepared by Norlina bt Adli (G76208)

Divorce among Malaysian celebrities is becoming a current trend nowadays. We can simply say that every weekend there is news about celebrities who are asking for divorce, declaring their separation with their spouse or rumors saying that he or she now is having marital problem. This unhealthy trend is increasing because those celebrities can simply say that “they are still human; they are not different from their fans out there”. They do not realize their status as celebrities, artists and famous faces, and that their life is surrounded by fans who are never exhausted to know more than their new products of films or songs. News or headline like “ X- the famous actor announcing his divorce “ or “ Yes, we are not living together since 3 months ago- Artist B “ give an bad indicator to not only entertainment industry but to the religion institution and academic system. In fact it reflects how bad Malaysians are in managing their married lives.

There are few factors contributing to the wrecked marriage among Malaysian celebrities. First of all it is about infidelity and unfaithfulness. Lots of divorce cases occurred because of these factors. The existence of third person can trigger this problem. Third person may be anybody - fans, or some corporate people that they are dealing with, manager, recording company staff or just new artists who want to have some publicity to spur their name. It is very ironic to see that celebrities have elaborated wedding reception to celebrate their marriage, where all the ministers and VVIP in Malaysia were invited and the coverage of their wedding would be on the magazine for a month, but after one of two years of marriage, they end up in Syariah Court. It is juxtaposition with their Hollywood-like wedding ceremony, because their attitude towards a marriage is very pathetic. Their perception about marriage is always different with the ordinary people’s concept of marriage because they are celebrities themselves. This is why infidelity and unfaithfulness happen where they feel that the status as celebrities allow them to do whatever they wish to do. The status also can be immunity for them to go overboard without thinking about the consequences that might affect their marriage in the future. Last year, we were shocked to read about the divorce between two famous artists that we always taught as loving couple. The male celebrity was caught in proximity with a new artist in his new office- resulting in the collapse of a 9 year of marriage. It shows that Malaysian celebrities have misused their license as public figures by involving themselves in affairs and scandals which soon will degrade the role of celebrities in public’s eyes. Statements such as “that is our fate” and “that is not our choice to separate” is what they would always say outside the syariee court after their procedural of divorcee is done. The problem is caused by their actions, and by saying such statements, it shows the lack of mentality among our celebrity about the marriage institution. Endless scandal bit by bit will deteriorate people’s trust and interest to support their product of the entertainment industry as a whole.

The second factor is gossip. Gossip, celebrities and media are interrelated. Media and celebrities for instance depend on each other. The magazine needs to be sold, and hot and latest entertainment news would push fans to buy the magazines to read about their favorite celebrities. On the other hand, celebrities depend on media to market their product and tell the public about their new films or albums. However, our media industry has been flooded with lots of entertainment magazines which have the same purpose - gaining money from the glittering world of show business. Lots of approach and creativity are needed to compete with other publisher. However, it becomes an unhealthy competition when they start to write about personal details and private life of celebrities. It may be a good approach because readers love to know more about the celebrities’ life compared to their new products. However, sometimes what they write are stories without any strong supporting evidence. Celebrities become the victims but they must allow this to happen in order to avoid being boycotted by the press and media. To make thing even worse, some of the gossip are more towards provocation. We can blame the entertainment press for reporting such irrelevant news which will affect the readers. We cannot deny some of the gossip might be true but the media should not use it as a selling point to sell their magazines. They must be responsible with what they write and the public must be given accurate news and coverage about the celebrity. There are lots of divorces among Malaysian’s celebrities because of gossips. “Artist A (married) is said having a dinner with Artist C? (bachelor) is one example of gossip which can bring trouble to Artist A’s marriage. News without pictures, evidences or having question remarks should not be published because it can be a slander to ruin Artist A’s career and marriage. However, the fans will not perceive it as a gossip or a slander, they will believe the gossip and the gossip will spread across the country. Having pressure in their marriage, Artist A’s marriage with his spouse will be adversely affected and result in divorce. Here, we can see the impact of media in patterning the future of people in the entertainment industry in Malaysia. How terrible it is to see the wicked tactics used by some of the press and publisher just to get the readers for their magazine and to increase the sales.

Besides that, some Malaysian celebrities are easily drowned by popularity. Life as a public figure which camera flash is always on them, sometimes make them forget their commitment especially for those who are married. Exposure and endless offer to make films or stage shows will overshadow their own priority. As it is named as entertainment industry, it will absolutely entertain these celebrities with lots of money and products to endorse, and strong fans around them who will support their films or albums. Their life will be filled with photo shooting, an invitation to A-class list of businessman’s party or joining the tour of the products they endorse. For the celebrities who are still holding status as a bachelor, it will be alright. However, it becomes a problem to married celebrities who are at the peak of their career. Thus, they must be able to prioritize between their career and family in order to secure and maintain their success in both career and happiness in marriage. However, most Malaysian celebrities fail to do that because their popularity has blinded them from choosing the right decision for their own life. For them, popularity and fame only comes once, so they must grab all opportunity that they have in front of the eyes. Endless commitment to their career will kill their marriage because of their own failure to prioritize what is important in their life. Popularity is very subjective and every celebrity will taste the sweetness of popularity and the bitter part of it. But, for some of married celebrities in Malaysian, commitment to maintain their popularity is more important than holding the serenity of married life. There are many cases of celebrity’s divorce in Malaysia because of the tendency to maintain their popularity rather than thinking about their family. They think that having married life will hinder their movement as well-known celebrities. In fact, they think that their fans will prefer them to be an individual not as a husband or wife to somebody. That is why they choose to divorce as a sacrifice for their blossoming career. Unfortunately, after the divorce, the offer in the entertainment industry decreased, and the attention is turned to the younger artists who have lots of things to offer in one package. It is very common for some artists who think that their popularity is absolute but it ends just after they got divorced. In this industry, sometimes the best decision that we think is good sometimes does not work out.

There are current trends in Malaysia to see our celebrities getting married to older people and with the foreigners. It is not a big problem unless you know how to handle this situation. What will happen if the spouse that you think will follow your religion rules (cases of marrying a foreigner) is totally against with it? Marrying a foreigner may sound cool and show the good taste of Malaysian celebrities but they have to follow the social convention that our religion has set up for them. That is the issue especially for those marrying foreigner or ever experienced marrying French, English or Italian men who are known as less-committed in the world. Many of our celebrities fail to shape their spouse to follow the rules and regulations of our religion and resulting in divorce with lame excuses such as “ He could not follow my way” and “ It is very difficult to marry foreigner”. Besides that, marrying a rich older man is commonly seen in this industry. They can simply claim that money is not the reason why they choose that wrinkle man, but because of love. The public is not foolish, for a 20 year old girl who has just started singing and held small roles in television series and engaged to a 60 years old rich businessman, it might be a good thing to laugh about especially when you talk about love. From the two examples above, we can see how shallow the thinking of our celebrities is especially when it comes to marriage. Marriage for them is just tying the knot and having somebody to sleep with. They may say that they have chosen the right person and made the right decision, but their immaturity is shown after two years of marriage when they start to claim that they are not happy with that older man and the foreigner. Finally, they choose to separate to get rid of the relationship problem they face.

Last but not least is location love. This factor also contributes to the increasing divorce rate among Malaysian celebrities. For example, Brad Pitt dumped his wife, Jennifer Aniston while filming a movie together with sexy Angelina Jolie, maybe our celebrities can learn a lesson from this. Spending 24 hours together in the filming location sometimes can spur affection between actor and actress. In fact, the role of scripted romantic scenes can sometimes continue out of the filming location. In fact, the director’s instruction to build chemistry between the casts sometimes has been misused by them to build not only the chemistry but affection and desire. Married casts who are involved in location love may experience excitement and seduction with their acting partners and this overtake their responsibility as a father or mother at home. The producer might want to use this relationship as a weapon to promote his movie which bringing more chaos to the current circumstances. As the result, it wrecks the cast’s family and ends with divorce. If the casts themselves sets their mind to help their family before going to the location, love at work will not happen. Therefore, they must know their responsibility and boundaries that they must oblige with their acting partner.

In the nutshell, divorce among Malaysian celebrities can be avoided if they know their job and responsibility well. It might be a domestic problem, but as one who holds the status as public figure they must know the social conventions and rules that they must obey. Being a celebrity does not permit them to do whatever they want because as a role model, their movements and actions will be followed by their fans. Knowing their role in the family as a father, mother, husband, wife and public figure well will prevent them marriage problem.

1 comment:

  1. Factor-factor Divorce among Celebrities in Malaysia.

    1. Few factors contributing to the marriage-wrecked among Malaysian celebrities. First of all it is about infidelity and unfaithfulness.
    • The existence of third person can trigger this problem.
    • Their perception about marriage is always different with the ordinary people’s concept of marriage because they are celebrities themselves.
    • Also can be immunity for them to go overboard without thinking the consequences that might affect their marriage in the future.
    • Malaysian celebrities have misused their license as public figure by involving themselves into an affair and scandal which soon will degrade the role of celebrities in public’s eyes.

    2. The second factor is gossip.
    • Gossip, celebrities and media are interrelated.
    • Entertainment news has lots of fan which is recommending them to buy the magazines for reading about their favorite celebrities.
    • Their product and telling the public about their new films or albums. However, our media industry has been flooded with lots of entertainment magazines.
    • It becomes an unhealthy competition when they start to write about personal details and private life of celebrities.
    • Sometimes what they write is just rubbish without any support of strong evidence.
    • Some of the gossip is more to provocation to make thing even worse.
    • How bad to see the wicked games played by some of the press and publisher just to get the readers for their magazine.

    3. Some of Malaysian celebrities are easily drowned by popularity.
    • Exposure and endless offer of making films or stage shows will overshadow their own priority to involve in this industry.
    • They must be able to give commitment between their career and family.
    • Most of Malaysian’s celebrities fail to do that because the popularity they gain has blinded them to choose the right decision for their own life.
    • Some of married celebrities in Malaysian, commitment to maintain their popularity is much important than holding the serene of marriage life.
    • Having married life will hinder their movement as well-known celebrities.

    4. Get marries with older people and with the foreigners.
    • Marrying a foreigner may sound cool and show the good taste of Malaysian celebrities are but they are going to follow the social convention that our religion has set up for them.
    • Many of our celebrities fail to shape their spouse to follow the rules and regulations of our religion and resulting to the divorcee.
    • Marrying a rich older man is commonly seen in this industry.
    • Marriage for them is just tying up the knot and having somebody to sleep next with.

    5. Location love.
    • Spending 24 hours together in location sometimes will spur affection between actor and actress.
    • Romantic scenes sometimes will continue out of the location.
    • Married casts also involved in location love which the excitement and seduction they have with their acting partners.
    • If the casts themselves sets their mind to help their family before go to the location, love location will not happen.

    ReplyDelete