This headline caught my eye on Google News this morning:
David Tennant: ‘actors should not be role models’, says former Doctor Who star
(I wonder if something unpleasant happened that made him feel under pressure and on the spot.)
From the article, in The Telegraph:
In an interview with Radio Times, he said actors should not have to be role models.
”There’s a sense everyone in the public eye has to have moral purity,” he told the magazine.
”Personally I might agree that’s a good thing but I don’t see why, because you’re in a TV programme, you have to be perfect.
I tend to agree that it’s not fair to hold famous people to a higher standard than we’d hold anyone else. On the flip side, though, we shouldn’t give famous people too much of a pass, either, on the argument that “they’re only human.” Really heinous behavior, stuff that’s actually criminal or truly morally reprehensible, should be condemned to the same degree that we’d condemn it if someone nonfamous perpetrated it.
What do you think? Is it unfair to expect actors and other celebs to be role models? Does it make a difference if the celeb is someone who is particularly famous with children?
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