Is the world (finally) turning on him?
If there’s one thing I love it’s a laugh at Justin Bieber’s expense. The teenybopper just turned 19 and it seemed like only yesterday he was singing his mom’s praises while breastfeeding and acting like such a little gentleman. Man, what a difference a year makes.
I made no secret about my thoughts that Biebs would become a reckless teenage star. I had a normal upbringing but still had a rebellious streak when it came to overbearing parents. I at least had the good fortune of being able to escape from my mom. Bieber travels the world with his.
When a child star is under 18, record labels and publicists and handlers are very protective about maintaining a squeaky-clean image. Look what happened with Miley Cyrus: a smiling Disney star but as soon as she became an adult she grew into what we soon found out was “the real her.” Is she as likeable? Not to many people, no.
Like it or not, these young celebs are morphing into new people not only because we have watched them grow into adulthood but because they’d been moulded for so long by what their “people” wanted them to be. What is the most politically correct image? What is the best way to market a cute little Canadian boy with a not-so-flashy upbringing in Ontario? Admittedly, they have their work cut out for them now.
You see, Bieber has had a taste of fame and money. He knows the record label and his entire entourage depend on his fame and success. Bieber has a sense of entitlement. He knows that when he’s yelling at paparazzi in London that his big burly bodyguards are going to hold him back, knowing full well he wouldn’t stand a chance against a mob of heckling photographers on his own.
Bieber knows that when he dramatically passes out on stage and posts a shirtless pic from his hospital bed that he will get sympathy from squealing fans who quickly forget he’s constantly breaking laws while driving and has indirectly admitted to using drugs.
Just this month, however, we have seen the public turn on Bieber en masse. With him hitting the stage almost two hours late in London and getting booed by fans to cancelling a concert in Portugal because of poor ticket sales. He’s had a rough go at things lately.
I’ve written about Bieber a few times in this column and I stand behind the belief that in less than 12 months I will once again be commenting on his recklessness, though fully convinced it will be about his entry into rehab or about an arrest. While I don’t wish him physical harm, I do think some sort of wakeup call is a necessary evil in the real world.
