“£2m bland bombshell” tells of how Barker has gone from “little known interior designer” to “one of the most recognised faces on TV”, even though she seemed “destined to be C-List”. On this article, practically the entire page is taken up by images of Barker compared to relatively little writing. The pictures show all of her recent “projects” through which she has gained large sums of money. There are 10 images in total, each showing how much money she received from them, these could be shown to emphasise just how many features Barker has appeared in and how much she has gained from them. The article also grabs the readers’ attention, as there are so many pictures. This could also put more of an emphasis on her looks, she is quite good-looking and this may attract more readers.
The article on Barker is largely covered with images of her various projects. There are no shots in which she comes across badly and she is posing in all of them. There are no pictures of her outside her advertisements in her normal everyday life. This could suggest that advertising is her life, and she does nothing but try and make more money. The pictures, which take up around 5/6 of the page, emphasise just how many programmes she has been involved with. The sums of money are used as a shock factor on the reader, as they can see just how much she has earned.
“TV Barrymore fled UK and £1.4m tax bill” is about how Michael Barrymore has “turned his back on Britain” and gone to live in Hawaii. After various attempts to “revive his shattered career” he has given up and left, apparently leaving a huge tax bill behind. The article is only a half page spread, and a large picture of Barrymore looking sad, perhaps sat kneeling down covers most of this. He has his arms outstretched as if he is pleading with the audience. The caption is “Barrymore begs the crowd in one last attempt at London’s Wyngham’s theatre”. This seems like it could be used to create a sympathetic vote from the audience, however once the article has been read it becomes obvious this was not the plan. Barrymore is only given one page (compared to Barker’s two pages) and there is a lot more text on his article. Barrymore fled the UK with his gay lover, this seems to be played on by the newspaper and emphasised as there are implications of gay people being ‘bad’.
The headlines for both articles only have a few common factors- they both use figures to shock and the titles are in very big, bold letters. The paper uses a play on words in Barker’s headline, as the phrase is usually “blonde bombshell”. This suggests not only is she bland, she is also stupid (implied by the “blonde bombshell”). Barrymore’s uses no pun or play on words, it just provides basic information, maybe to try and hit a more serious note.
Collins’ theory seems true to Barker and Barrymore. Barker is becoming slightly over-exposed; therefore she has reached the manipulation stage, where newspapers start to represent her badly. Barrymore however is on the final stage- exploitation. The papers seem to stop at nothing to find out any secrets they can about him, no matter how private they are or how much they hurts him. These examples also fit the 3-stage theory referred to by Jones et al.
Although Barker isn’t represented particularly well, supposedly any publicity is good publicity, although the article says she is everywhere and you can’t escape her, they are still doing a report on her and giving her yet more publicity! It could encourage more offers to her for work, as she is now known for her advertising skills. The Daily Mail concentrates on how many advertising projects she has been involved with and makes her seem greedy doing them all. There are figures of what she obtained for all 10 of the projects shown. The figures are shockingly large as she is receiving so much for doing what seems like a little work. This partly serves the purpose of the paper, as the audience like to read articles that shock them as they are more interesting, therefore more will be sold.
The paper also makes Barker look like she is saying that she doesn’t want all the money she has earned as she “insists she never wanted to be famous”. The paper contradicts this by saying she “has decided to make the most of her fame”.
There are no pretences in Barrymore’s article that the Daily Star is trying to make him come across well. The whole report is about how he has tried many times to gain popularity and all attempts have failed. The article also comments on the dubious story of the man found dead in Barrymore’s pool after consuming “a cocktail of alcohol and drugs”. Barrymore is releasing a book, the supposed true account of his life, and how the man ended up dead in his pool. The Daily Star implies that the story is not true as they put true story in speech marks. The BBC was apparently backing the creation of this book until a “storm of bad press” at which they pulled out.
The two articles represent the celebrities in very different ways. Barker is seen as greedy; out to get as much money as she can and that her career will probably be short-lived as people get bored of her, this comes across where it says “Over-exposure is very easily done and if that occurs, the offers will start drying up” and she should “Be careful or the public will get very sick of her”. Barrymore comes across as sad, pathetic and needy, especially through the use of the chosen image and the caption of it. A quote that supports this is where it says, “Barrymore’s career has self-destructed”.
In conclusion, in both articles, neither celebrity comes across well. It is definitely the papers whose interests are served in both, as both celebrities offer an interesting story to read. It is quite ironic that the Daily Mail says Barker gets too much coverage, yet they wrote an article on her, therefore giving her more. Barrymore’s article does not represent him well and suggests that he is incapable of being famous. Andrew Collins said, “Tabloids feed off the famous to fill their pages”. I believe this is very true, as even though they exploit them, without celebrities, newspapers whose main stories are to do with famous people wouldn’t have much to write about, therefore would not be as popular.
