Celebrity CorruptionStarting years ago, celebrity managers controlled them more than they controlled themselves. Multiple celebrities came clean about their abusive time in the industry over the years and shocked fans and others with the amount of control they exert in their lives. More than regularly, management will allow certain things to happen to the celebrity they manage, as an attention strategy. 

A celebrity typically fits into a music, acting, dancing, modeling, sports or writing field. When one becomes a celebrity, they usually must give up certain aspects of their life. Public activities like going out to eat at restaurants, attending public events, or simply walking outside becomes affected by the media and fans of the celebrity. Celebrities can not do activities a regular person can enjoy without becoming the target of public harassment.

Paparazzi remains one of the extreme, toxic, notorious legal jobs that can cause plenty of harm. Paparazzi take pictures of celebrities, usually candidly, whenever they can. The Paparazzi field started as a professional job in the 1950s. Magazines and newspapers needed more candid or planned photographs of celebrities or important figures, like presidents or people in political affairs, for better coverage of a story for their brand. Rather than hiring professional photographers that could cost more, brands hired paparazzi who traveled and took photos for less pay. This way the magazine or newspaper publication spent less money on compensation and the paparazzi became a more well-known, and easy hiring job. Now, management sometimes tips the paparazzi off for people to attain new content from the celebrity they manage.  

A multitude of singers references and include the troubles the paparazzi bring in their songs. Grammy award-winning singer Lady Gaga released a song entitled “Paparazzi” on May 29, 2009, with an accompanying music video. The song explains how a girl adores a boy and explains how she will follow him until he loves her back. The lyrics explain how the girl will follow him, giving the example of how the paparazzi may follow him. In Britney Spears’ song, “Piece of Me,” she explains how paparazzi intentionally cross the line sometimes just to form an extreme reaction from the celebrity they try to take pictures of, so they can capture a potential dramatic scene of them. 

Management controls multiple things that any normal person should control on their own. Recently, Robert Downey Jr. unfollowed a majority of his Marvel co-stars on social media. It recently became known that his manager remains the reason for the unfollowing of his ex-co-stars. Downey’s fans reported thinking he unfollowed his ex-co-stars as a way of ending an era, but in reality, Downey’s long-term assistant, Jimmy Rich who helped manage Downey’s Instagram, passed away, leaving the Instagram in the hands of his social media team. Multiple wealthy and older celebrities can not even control normal things. Britney Spears only recently got out of her 25-year-long contract in late December of 2021. Spears only got out of her contract when her manager decided to step down from the position. Meaning she could not even control getting out of her contract herself. The star even remained under conservation for 13 years. 

Even current active celebrities continue to not authorize control of things because of their management. The pop band, Why Don’t We revealed that due to their management’s controlling aspects, members developed eating disorders. 

“He would not only live with us during the day, but controlled us 24/7. Food was restricted to the point that some band members developed eating disorders. We had to sneak in food and hide it in our dresser,” Why Don’t We said.

Celebrity management can still become a problem for current and future celebrities. It remains important for people to recognize the stress and damage that management may cause to celebrities and people they manage, to ensure that future applicants for jobs in management take care of the celebrities they work with, and know to work appropriately in their field.