Date With Jessica Biel to Be Auctioned

Well, you see --

There's this thing that happened involving a girl on her prom night. It was pretty horrible. And because of that Jessica Biel has agreed to participate in a fund raiser. Because someone thought it might make people smile to read about someone famous doing something nice for someone who wasn't famous -- they decided to write about it.

This is commonly called reporting.

And the end result is news.

Got it?

You're right. It is news. It's just not the story it should be.

This story happened because someone was able to drop Biel's name into it repeatedly. The true human-goodness part of the story (which WAS the story) was flubbed.

The story is indeed about a nice person doing something nice for someone in need. My problem is that publicists and poor reporting turned it into a PR piece for Biel more than anything else. Even better than that, they DON'T play up the fact that one of the girl's classmates is actually the one who provided the point of contact to get Biel involved. It's not like Biel read the story about the accident in the paper and said, "Damn it, I'm going to help that girl."

Jessica Biel gets the headline because she's Jessica Biel; not because she's donating 90 minutes of her life to help an accident victim. Heck, she even got her status as "Sexiest Woman Alive" plugged one graf above the name of her new movie. Also, a photo of Biel runs next to the story instead of a picture of the injured girl, her friends, her family or anything relevant to the story except an attractive blonde in a low-cut top. Nothing like a few celebrity curves to drive a story, eh?

So here's how I think it should be done.

How about "Concerned classmate helps secure starlet for charity" as a headline? Or, for a more localized story, "Mollypalooza gets some unexpected help"

And then the story could read something like:

A Denver-area high school student who recently lost a leg in a Prom night limousine accident is getting a little help from actress Jessica Biel by way of a caring classmate.

Friends and family of the injured student are holding an event dubbed, "Mollypalooza" to raise funds for Molly Bloom, who lost a leg when X happened in Y vehicle on Z night. Through the help of her classmate Dmitri Lee Natali and his mother, actress Jessica Biel has offered to auction off a lunch at to the highest bidder at Mollypalooza - and Biel will attend.

At this point, you talk more to Natali, his mother and someone associated with the accident victim if not the victim herself. God, Biel couldn't even be bothered to comment about "That poor girl" in the story.

Don't get me wrong. The important part is that Biel is helping. I respect the hell out of anyone willing to step up when a neighbor is in need. This story just completely downplays that. It almost rides that out of the story.

And yes, Mr. Ford, I have definitely 'got it'.

There is a bad copy/paste in my above post. The second to last paragraph beginning with "Don't get me wrong..." should read:

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that Biel is helping. I respect the hell out of anyone willing to step up when a neighbor is in need. This story just completely misses who stepped up. Good for Biel, great for Dmitri et al.

Sorry for the error.

Thanks for expanding upon your comment. Your new emphasis makes what you say far more interesting and I can agree with you.

And what have you done for anyone lately?

I donated to the Red Cross.

Seems like the easy way out. People who really care drove down to New Orleans and threw sand bags and comforted the homeless.

People who really care drove down to New Orleans and threw sand bags and comforted the homeless.

...or just drove down to New Orleans for a photo op there (see "celebrities" or "Jesse Jackson")

She's using her celebrity to provoke giving based on something else (this case getting a date with her). It's away for someone who wants the date to give to a good cause.

However, she wants to do a photo-op to get publicity.

How so? It says in the article she will not be able to come to the fundraiser, and
the person who wins the date would also have to agree to appear (and sign a release)
at a photo-op "lunch date".

A real photo-op would have her use a break in the shooting schedule to pay a visit to Ms. Bloom in the hospital.

BTW: A quick google shows that Mollys parents have set up a blog about her at:
http://mollyspage2006.blogspot.com/