The fragile myth of celebrity couples

In these days users from all over the world are becoming passionate about the trial of the year involving Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard, thanks also to the possibility of following it live on Youtube or through the hundreds of TikTok videos that summarize every single detail. A bit like a TV crime, viewers follow the depositions of the two stars waiting for the next twist, the one that could contribute, once again, to the collapse of the myth of Hollywood stars. From the red carpet of the Oscars to the breaking news of TMZ, in the past the obsession with celebrities mythicized their status as unattainable personalities, surrounded by an aura of absolute fascination fed by a narrative in which every episode, no matter how small, served to create perfect, flawless figures.

Today, however, also thanks to the contribution of social media, we live an almost opposite situation in which it is difficult, if not impossible, to find someone immaculate, who in his past has not experienced and suffered at least one type of controversy. The myth of perfection has collapsed, bringing to light how problems once "relegated" to ordinary people are actually an integral part of the lives of celebrities. From Britney Spears' mental breakdown in 2007 to Will Smith's recent slap in the face at the Oscars, celebrity culture has become an almost untenable practice in which, instead of dispassionate mythologizing for one's favorite star, there is a strenuous defense in the face of attacks that rain down online for any kind of controversy. The love life, in particular, seems to represent the major interest in our voyeurism towards the stars, idolizing their lives and developing such an attachment that the moment the "perfect couples" cease to exist we take it almost as a personal defeat. From Brangelina to J.Lo and Ben Affleck, history is full of couples that have ended badly, but if some of them find a happy place in our collective memory, with a lot of comebacks in the case of the former Batman, in the overall count there are definitely more striking breakups, the noisy ones that despite their status have never hinted at scratching the myth of the celebrity couple.

But today probably something has changed, divided between court cases and continuous indiscretions about complicated marriages. The relationship between Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, well before the last Oscars, had already highlighted all the complications of the case: from stormy moments to the betrayal confessed by the actress in the middle of a show in front of her husband. The myth of idyllic stories, famous or not, is now fragile and shabby, fallen under the blows of trials and interceptions. If before the dynamics of a celebrity couple remained relegated to their private homes, today we have access to all kinds of details about their lives. The trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has probably represented the real turning point in this process of descent of the myth, showing us in a "naked and raw" way the reality of the facts. But are we sure this is a good thing? If, on the one hand, learning about the amputated phalanx of the former Jack Sparrow could lead us to rethink our relationship with the world of celebrities, on the other it could have the opposite effect, making us even hungrier for the lives of others in an attempt to make our own less boring and banal.