I never know whether to be amused or irritated at stuff like this.
Every trip to Starbucks and every stroll down the grocery aisle that Britney Spears makes may seem spontaneous, but let’s never underestimate the hyperstrategy of image-making behind celebrities. The latest fluffstorm, linked above, is about Britney’s contract with photojournalists who want to shoot her concert in Stockholm. They’re required to sign it if they want to cover the show, and it stipulates that Spears’ management has the right to decide which photos are published. Those who sign it also agree …
that no pictures be published more than 30 days after the concert and – maybe most odd – that Britney Spears’ management would hold the future copyright on all pictures that they like.
Seriously?
Are the people behind this stuff are supremely naive or supremely deluded? These little tempests in teapots always make me snicker. For one thing, they’re self-defeating: the people trying so desperately to control the image become so obsessed with the control part that they damage the very image they’re trying to nurture, which is just, well, stupid.
For another thing, these “management” moves are transparently hypocritical: the same people trying to dictate which photos can be published and who can own them would be the first people to pull the “freedom of expression/speech/press” card if anybody tried to dictate which songs Britney could sing or write or record or perform or own. If you represent an artist, you have the responsibility to treat the rights of other artists with the same respect that you expect your own client to receive.
But maybe what bugs me most of all is how unprofessional these tactics are. When you’re handling stars like Britney, you’d better have to have a thick enough skin to take some licks now and then. It’s just part of the nature of the beast. If you’re the kind of wimp who’s gonna take his ball and bat and go home if you don’t get to call the shots, then you have no business in the major leagues. So what do you do if a newspaper prints an unflattering photo of Britney? Here’s a hint: grow up and deal with it.
