CELEBRITY REALITY-CHECK

The musician Jarvis Cocker is quoted in an interview in the current Radio Times saying: “I think pop stars are just people, and I hate it when they act as if they’re not, or even as though they’re somehow superior. In most cases pop stars are actually inferior to normal people because they live such a pampered existence.”

This was music to my Aquarian ears, and you can’t accuse Cocker of being jealous, because he’s pretty successful himself (he was the singer in the 90s band Pulp). What got his band really famous was a protest he staged at the 1996 Brit Awards. Michael Jackson was performing, surrounded by children and a rabbi, while making ‘Christ-like’ poses.

As the RT puts it: “Famously Cocker got annoyed in 1996 when Michael Jackson came over all messianic at the Brit Awards, storming the stage and shaking his bony butt at the superstar before security escorted him away. He hasn’t changed his mind about the validity of the protest, but he regrets the attention it brought him. “I got too much publicity,” he says. “There is an obsession with celebrity in our society, but I think people are starting to realise that it really isn’t very nice. Some people might thrive on it, but I didn’t. To suddenly become known by a lot of people because I waggled my arse at somebody isn’t brilliant, is it? I’d rather be known for something better than that. Although my arse wriggling is second to none, I would rather people remember me for what I create.”

With Neptune (celebrity excess) currently opposite Saturn (coming down to earth), now is a time when we might expect to see some well-known people being pulled up short. Of course, this happens anyway, but as a culture we are more likely to take note of it. And with Pluto about to enter the Saturn-ruled sign of Capricorn, we may be about to enter a longer period of the demise of celebrity excess, and of celebrities who have no talent.

Such as Jade Goody, the Big Brother star, famous for being stupid, a bully and having a big mouth (she was expelled from school for biting off part of one of her classmate's ears). They put her on the UK reality show Big Brother again earlier this year, there was an Indian actress on it as well, and there was a furore when Ms Goody got racist towards the more intelligent, attractive and successful Shilpa Shetty. Well what do you expect? Often celebrities can turn their blunders to their advantage, but this one seems to have finished off Jade Goody.

Then there is Paris Hilton, who also seems to have no particular talent, but is obviously desperate to attract attention to herself, and will stop at nothing to do so. If taking your clothes off isn’t enough, then how about filming yourself having sex and pretending you didn’t mean it to go on the internet? She’s got the desire to be noticed of a Moon in Leo, but the exhibitionism that only Aquarians at their worst can have (particularly when, like her, that Sun is square to Uranus). Aquarians at best are unselfconsciously themselves in public, however weird or off-beat, and this is great to be around. A younger Aquarian, less sure of him/herself, can be rebelliously provocative. I think in Paris Hilton’s case it is so extreme that there may eventually be a mental health issue. Being so Fixed (Sun and Moon), she may not want to know. Maybe when Neptune crosses her Sun in 3 years time she may have some sort of necessary breakdown. Mind you, I haven't actually met her, this is just an impression from a distance, so I may not know what I'm talking about! In the meantime, she is in jail for a few weeks for driving offences, but I reckon she’ll manage to turn this to her advantage. But who knows, with Saturn opposite Neptune, it might wake her up a bit.