Reassessing my opinion of Kerry Katona
For a number of years I've enjoyed loving to hate Kerry Katona. Not really paying much attention to the vapid nicotine addicted bint but keeping my eye firmly enough on the cover of the celebrity magazines (and buying the occasional one) to know the latest drugs / drink / cosmetic surgery / bankruptcy / relationship breakdown she was presently courting the press with.

My biggest source of incredulous exasperated hatred was the claimed bi-polar disorder from which she suffered. Drunkenly slurring her way through her This Morning interview to cocaine induced twitching limbs and swinging jaw on her MTV programme and blaming it on bi-polar medication.

A couple of evenings ago I was playing with our new BT Vision box and going through the TV On Demand stuff when I found a series of Kerry Katona : What's the problem and put it on in the background while I was surfing the interwebz. I didn't pay it much attention until one episode where she was reunited with her Mother who was a dead ringer for Jabba the Hut. When I saw how her Mother spoke to her, comparing her to Damien from the Omen, slapping her and generally acting like a disgusting obese alcoholic bitch who clearly had no regard for her daughter's feelings something completely unexpected happened. I felt really sorry for Kerry and realised what a fucking dire upbringing she had had.

Not sure how it'd escaped my attention up until that point that her erratic behaviour, crash diets, drink and drug problems stemmed from her childhood and I was overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. A sense of sadness that she was allowing herself to be exploited (and admittedly paid handsomely) to feed the baying mob of the public, that shamefully included me, who were ready to watch her have a cardiac arrest or emotional breakdown on television.

"SO WHAT?!" I hear you cry. "She's brought on herself and she's the one signing the contracts with MTV and she's getting paid shedloads of wonga for doing it!"

But isn't it sad? Isn't it sad that there is a large audience of people who want to watch a mentally ill person dangerously close the edge trying to exist in a pressure cooker celebrity environment for their own amusement?

I suddenly felt horribly guilty. I was one of those people. I wanted to watch her coke addled and chain smoking and laugh at her trying to pass it off as bi-polar. But it's horrible really, this mentality that it's acceptable to aggravate people and push them nearer and nearer to meltdown to sell papers and boost ratings. I almost want to say inhumane but realise that I've already strayed far enough to have lost most of you.



Apologies for the lack of teh funnehs.
(Fireyfox is prepared to change, Wed 10 Feb 2010, 21:59, 3 replies)

See no reason not to hate her
Mentally unbalanced or not, she's still an attention whore whose reason for adorning newspaper covers or television is tenuous at the best of times and non existent the rest. Just like various other alleged celebs (e.g. Jordan, Peter Andre etc.) she'll take the money when its on the table from the tabloids and then acts all upset and shocked when they pounce on her public transgressions. She made her own bed and she can lie in it.
(MagicMoose, Wed 10 Feb 2010, 22:16, closed)

You...
Missed the entire point I was trying to make.

I fully accept that she's an attention whore and an annoying one at that.

I just think the society's attitude is a little unkind to everyone really.
(Fireyfox is prepared to change, Wed 10 Feb 2010, 22:26, closed)

You did indeed miss the point
She doesn't choose the reason for her adorning of magazine covers. You'd whore yourself out just as easily if you had mental health issues and people were offering you quick, easy money that you could otherwise only dream of. I dislike the woman as much as anyone, but I also recongnise that a lot of us live life on high horses that we'd do well to get off occasionally.
( greedyostrich Cheese is evil! Cheddar is VOODOO!, Wed 10 Feb 2010, 23:52, closed)