No disrespect. I’m sorry Farah Fawcett is dying, and yes she did have lovely hair, but can someone tell me exactly what the purpose of that documentary was? The documentary was not very informative from a medical standpoint. I don’t know the name of her therapies/treatments, her other options here in this country, or how much it cost to fly to Germany, in a private jet, for treatments most people would not have as an option.
If it is noble to want to live despite the fact you are dying, many people are noble. If it was a road map on how to stay positive in the face of it all, well yay then good for good intentions, it failed. I saw someone who wanted to live, and who had the fame and finances to take what she thought was her best shot at life, a more medically likely shot at life than most people in her clinical situation have. Good for her. Who wouldn’t go for it. Is she special? I don’t think so.
I found it strange how her hair as her identity were considerations when choosing the treatments to save her life. That of course is neither here or there.
Cancer sucks, treatment sucks, some people can face adversity and come out fine, some won’t. Some will survive, and some will not. That is life and that is death. I don’t see this documentary making one a difference. And Ryan O’Neal. What the fuck is up with that. Not telling her son she is dying. Crying all over camera. I don’t know, the whole thing just didn’t do it for me.
I hope she jumps out of bed tomorrow and is miraculously cured. That would make a good documentary, but I don’t see her dying/living process as more noteworthy than the process of a million others, some much younger and usually a lot poorer, dying prematurely every single day. Were I being kind I’d call them equally deserving of public time, they aren’t. The only difference is that she had the means to record it while she flew around the world for treatment, vacationing in Mexico in between treatments.
As we sat around and watched this tonight I kept thinking there was going to be a point to it, a revelation of some kind. I don’t know, maybe I’ve got it wrong, but I just can’t see the point to this except to capitalize on the extreme celebrity voyeurism. As to Ms. Fawcett’s purpose I can’t even imagine.
I have a suggestion though. If you have time to investigate in your local community you might find that there are people who are undergoing cancer treatment who need rides to their therapy, whose family need a few hours break from care taking, people who have no one to stay with them on their worse days during chemotherapy, or maybe a family so involved in care taking they just need their house cleaned. There are ways to volunteer and help these people. If you are interested.
Tags: Farrah Fawcett, NBC
The first time I heard about Farrah Fawcett having cancer was yesterday. I am just a bit out of touch. I should turn on the TV more often. I understand that Farrah made the video as a personal journal — a memoir for her family — and it was Ryan O’Neal and Alana Stewart who decided it had to be made public. Call me cynical but I am thinking $$$. The cash cow is dying, gotta milk it one more time.
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The money angle is a significant part of it. and that is the part that made me uncomfortable, that and he options are not the options of the world or even the US as a whole. That the intent may have been good — I can’t say, I’m sure we would all like to document our struggles, though no one would watch. I will give the benefit of doubt to this, but still think NBC could have done better to help those with cancer than this. I, of course. am not always right.
Is is bad to say i don’t care? Something about celebrities thinking we need to know how hard it is for them to die seems wrong. I didn’t see it, I can’t judge, but I can think of a hundred things I’d rather see a documentary on than this.
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We are all able to express our opinions, and change them over time. Nothing is right or wrong really — as opinion goes.
My take on anything like this: we don’t know. Since I avoid stories like this on principle, I’m sure that I don’t know, what is fact and what is misdirection. For example, Fawcett and/or her people may have reasoned, hey, the tabloid press is going to be all over this story. We may as well grab some control over it, and earn something off it ourselves, rather than handing all the gold over to the National Enquirer and its even grubbier competition.
the amoeba’s last blog post..… and sometimes it just takes all night.
I think a little differently on this. I think NBC could do cancer a few better, but then again the public probably wouldn’t care.
Minor irony for a costar of Logan’s Run. We really ought to revisit that method.
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I never saw the film, had no idea she was in it though I read the book…they are making a new version I hear.
For some reason, and I suspect bad research, my parents took me to that movie when it was new and I was, I dunno, 8. Heady stuff for an 8-year-old but it made a big impression. Jenny Agutter was memorable.
Doug’s last blog post..The Reformation of Wolfshausen
Hi Cooper,
Great to read you. I agree. Great article. Tragic way to define your life. By your hair, but not sure she did. But then again, I didn’t watch. How are you???
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How are you Ev, long time no see.
The one doctor was just mentioning how they took her hair into consideration because it was part of her, and important..my though was if you really want to live you do it despite all that and take the optimal treatment, even if your hair will fall out, but that is just me. It wasn’t really a significant part of the docu.
I didn’t see it. The commercials with Ryan O’Neil plugging it were enough to keep me away. I can’t judge, but NBC knows the fascination with celebrity this country has and figured it worth some ad revenue.
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It’s amazing what is revenue producing on television.
I found it inspiring to be one of the most watched celebrities because of your enormous beauty and then let America see you at your absolute worst. I think her intent was to say “this can happen to anyone, anytime.” We know that and the fact that there are others with maybe an even worst story doesn’t diminish from that fact that her intent in doing this was for a good purpose. The most heartful statement she made was “I miss my old life.” That made me appreciate my simple, not so glamorous lifestyle even more so I would say “yeah, Farrah you achieved getting a good message out to me” and that is to be thankful for what I have right now today. I don’t know if I could share those type of intense personal moments with the rest of the world. Her heart and motives in doing the documentry were in the right place, I’m sure.
Oh I understand how people my parents age who were fans of hers might care but there are people all over the place dying ever day of cancer, brave people, most without access to state of the art treatment, most struggling with the illness chemo causes, and without the help of people to clean their homes or shop for their groceries while they are sick. I just found it all a little too much, a little let’s make money of Farrah dying.
Money money money if Ryan has his way Farrah please don’t die cause he’s the back bone to your fortune Your son didn’t know you were dying til he saw you. What kind of a Father is that.
I watched the documentary and my father died of colon cancer. I think it makes one empathatic about what a cancer patient goes thru.
THose who don’t have a clue what it was about should watch it again and not be so fast to critize. I think it was excellent
yeah I’ve watched a couple people die of cancer, and have been to chemo treatments with a friend, it didn’t change my mind, sorry.
I’ll agree with Cooper here. Solely due to the “those who don’t have a clue what it was about” statement — which is unfair and a poor method of debate.
I’ve paid attention to Fawcett’s tribulations, if that’s a good description, but I simply could not watch the “documentary.” I’ve watched several similar ones, particularly during the days when a cousin was going downhill due to melanoma. And I had an uncle die years ago from anal cancer (not the same as colon but equally devastating). Anyone who’s been involved in helping a friend or relative during days of radiation or chemo need not watch. And it’s not because they “don’t have a clue.”
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Excellent blog.
I watched the documentary with mixed emotions. When I was a teenager, I had the biggest girl crush ever on Farrah. I adored her.
I was very sad to hear she had cancer, and I watched the documentary because I liked her in my younger days. I doubt I would have watched it otherwise.
I wouldn’t wish what she is going through on anybody. But, as you pointed out, the focus of the documentary was Farrah more than cancer and cancer treatments. Farrah emphasized her contempt for the paparazzi, but it was okay to have a two hour documentary about herself televised; it didn’t matter that the audience for the paps and the documentary were basically the same.
I shed some tears while watching the show, but I would have done that if I were watching about any friend who was dying. Farrah is so much more fortunate than the friends I’ve had who’ve had cancer. She has been much more fortunate in life than most people I know, at least on the levels of beauty, fame, and fortune.
It’s heartbreaking what appeared to be a dream life for most of the world is coming to an end, and Farrah is enduring such pain and agony. It’s also devastating so many who haven’t been as blessed as Farrah are going through the same and without the money and treatment options her beauty, fame, and public interest in her life gave her.
Exactly, I guess that is why it made me uncomfortable and didn’t provoke a whole lot of emotion. I care less about her struggle than about what happens to people without her options, but then again I didn’t grow up with Farrah, and don’t have any real historic interest in her.
hmmm…I’ve been busy painting so I did miss it ..anyhow …thanks for the thoughts and feedback on the documentary Cooper.. good to hear your perspective :)
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You just keep painting. Believe me it is a far more worthier pursuit.
I’m usually struck by this every time I hear about a celebrity dying, and I’m reminded of how when my Dad died, the world went on as usual.
But that’s life, never ending.
I could easily be cynical about celebrity importance, but I shall side step, into extreme irreverence as I often do.
Perhaps we should consider Farrah Fawcett’s famous 70’s poster of her with her nipple poking through the 1 piece orange swimsuit.
Let’s us all bow our heads that this lasting image, was in fact her greatest contribution to man’s ( and of course boys’) sexual fantasies during their puberty years.
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I’m slipping. I should have re-edited that last sentence…It should have read:
” Let us all bow our heads in honor of her greatest contribution to mankind, and young boys’ in their puberty years. For without her lasting image boys would not have had such perkiness to emasculate themselves into adulthood.”
Bennet’s last blog post..Life = 1.0 × 10¹ººΩ
eh, I guess I missed it. I’ve seen her old posters of course but I just can’t get the feeling. Though she was great in “The Burning Bed” and “Extremities”, both of which I ‘ve viewed sometime in the last 7 years.
It was an icon.
See?…I’m old.
It was an icon during the late 70’s, and just about every male owned one.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Farrah+Fawcett+poster&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Bennet’s last blog post..Life = 1.0 × 10¹ººΩ
I didn’t know about this documentary. I suppose it’s fascinating, in a creepy way, to see that even Beautiful People meet extremely bad health and die. She was certainly iconic. Perhaps this doc is Fawcett’s swansong? Olivia Newton-John has cancer too, but had a different style of coping.
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Beside Extremities and the Burning Bed, in which she was very good I know nothing else about here except I saw her on some late night show once acting quite out of it and bizarre.
It was just a documentary about her fight against cancer. That’s all it was. No big message, just a woman dying of cancer. I thought it was very moving. Don’t begrudge her the ability to fly to Germany for treatment. When faced with trying to save her life she spent money she earned. No skin off my nose.
No begrudging, just wondering why a network is so willing to let us ponder the death of someone like her when tragedy occurs every day to those of lesser fortune, some because of our country and some only for the fact that medicine and water are not abundant, or for reasons of insurance companies denying coverage to those who suddenly become ill. I find it not at all interesting how a former super star dies but interesting that anyone cares.
I am dying of cancer. If I make a documentary of it can I make some $$$$$ so I can get better treatment?
When I began to read your article, I was prepared to be angry at you for your attitude that Farrah’s documentary was not really relevant when it came to presenting a picture of the struggle of a woman trying to survive cancer. But, as I read to the end, I found that I agreed with you in most part. If I were the average cancer patient, having to arm-wrestle my insurance company into paying for treatments that may or may not keep me alive, worrying about how my family will bear up under the burden of providing most of my nursing care and considering how, in the worst case scenario, my family will survive without my income, and still pay off the bills I leave behind– then, yes, I would find her struggle hard to relate to. Thank God Farrah is able to afford to pull out the big guns when it comes to her treatment– jetting to Germany several times for cutting edge alternative treatment; recuperating (deservedly) at a Mexican beach resort. Not having to wonder which of the drugs she could most do without if she had to cut back on expenses. Dying is a hard thing to do for anyone, whether you’re a wealthy celebrity or an office manager. But, to die wondering if you might have lived if only you could afford to try every treatment available must be the bitterest pill of all. Farrah is brave in her fight to live, but, not any braver than the single mother with cancer who must still show up at work each day, as long as she is able, because she has children to support.
And the story of that single mother is the one I would have preferred to see. Thank you for stopping by and leaving your thoughts.
I recently watched…no, taped then watched Farrah Fawcett’s documentary on her cancer story. I cried at the end. From her story, I saw cancer devouring a life…yes. A LIFE. NOT a star, not “her hair,” not even a “Charlies Angel.” A LIFE. Someone who desperately wanted to live in the face of death. I saw that a disease, cancer, makes its way into even the most admonished of lives. Doesn’t matter how much money or fame Farrah had, she is a VICTIM of cancer. I admire her for putting herself in the most vulnerable of places…the public…for you who want to criticize her, and for us who see her as a person. I am a nurse. I wish to Farrah, Ryan, and Redman…and ALL of you who are there to support her, God be with you. I take this to heart. I am praying for your family, dear Farrah, and all those around you. With much prayer support, Susan
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No one gets out of here alive, I’d rather know what I can do tp prevent children who haven’t really had one from dying in futile wars or of starvation. I’d rather know how to help those who can’t afford it get treatment so they can live a life. We all have our own opinions, that is what is so great about blogging, I get to post mine on my blog.
despite all the legal rumors going around, there’s a really good chance that Farrah Fawcett’s documentary will raise awareness about cancer and thus benefit a lot of people