Grumpy bugbear - extremely wealthy presenters and celebs pretending to have normal lives to relate to audiences

[mids2019]

Watching Any and Dec yesterday on Saturday night take away and their cheeky chappy Geordie shtick occasionally suggests they have lives which can be comparable to the majority of mere mortals.

Chris Evans on Virgin complaining about the cost of trainers and doing housework.

Rishi Sunak not admitting to having a cleaner etc.

Is it just me or do the very wealthy omit features of their lives when presenting shows or otherwise speaking which show that in reality they enjoy lives that are much well funded than the rest of people. I just think it would be nice for a little honesty and celebs just openly admitted to having cleaners, multiple properties, drivers etc. I think to do otherwise is slightly patronising. People aren't stupid and know the majority of celebs are in the top 1% financially and having them being open about their lives would be refreshing. It seems to me a bit of an act with some where they play up working class credentials and pretend to have the same lifestyle as they would have had in their youth.

Maybe I am just being grumpy and we buy in to this pretence to enjoy the celeb perfomance?

So you're jealous?

@WandaWonder

Good point. I don't think it's jealousy more just wanting people in the public spotlight to be unashamed and open about their wealth rather than engaging in bits of banter where they minimise their wealth to be more relatable?

I guess maybe people are buying into this to some extent but at times I just feel it a bit grating.

I must have missed something as it looked to me like she was saying it’s annoying when those who are really well off pretend to be ‘ordinary’ because then if you ARE ordinary you feel a bit ‘lacking’ somehow.

Celebrities,politicians, etc. have always done this. Some people do buy into the narrative "rich people are just like us".

I'm with you, ditto for every daytime type presenter. Ant & Dec really have had their day, let someone else get a look in. After Ants serial drink driving offences being overlooked we could tell he was far removed from average people. It's generally ITV ppl that drive me mad, I can't watch anything like that.

These famous people are still people. And they may struggle financially. A lot are freelance so their presenting fees go via many intermediary companies, so cash flow, tax and commissions get taken out. Famous to nobody can happen quickly so they need to prepare for that to happen.

Plus they tend to live in expensive areas so cost of living is high.

So whilst I agree that pretending to be poor is bad, I also think they aren't as carefree as you might think.

I'm not famous, and have no desire to be!

People aren't stupid

They really are though. There are actually people who think that Prince William was going to be extra busy with childcare when his wife was in hospital.

I agree.
I cannot stand adverts where celebrities pretend they do laundry every day. Or sit stuffing their face with chocolate.
Sane fit influencers. Hello they get paid to promote the crap they are promoting.
As for Sunak, well you must be a special kind of stupid if you believe anything he says. Both he and his wife are extremely privileged. Didn’t stop a company she profits from claiming over £300,000 from the British tax payer recently, then letting that company go into administration so the money will never be laid back.
He is a liar.
I wish he would fuck off back to the animated world he looks like he belongs in. Straight back to an aardvark animations feature film. He resembles a Nick Parks creation along with Preston the dog.

@Rollercoaster1920

good point. It is mainly the presenters where you can be fairly certain There are no financial worries that I was paying attention to. It is mainly radio presenters where there are few 'professional northerners' that use examples of 'working class' lifestyle to fill in a persona. I guess they are getting paid for this persona and people like it?

They can't win though, they are paid to talk about their lives to some extent, they talk about realistic things and that pisses people off, but if they talk about what they do with their money even more people kick off because they are being insensitive during a COL crisis.

An example might be Paddy McGuiness. Working class northern bloke who was making loads and living the high life. But he recently did an interview where he said he needed to earn money because his main presenting gigs top gear and a game show got cancelled.

I don't think TV and radio presenters have the kind of wealth where they have staff for everything including laundry. Quite a few are relatively young so won't have build up their wealth. I do wonder what Steve Wright spent all his money on. He was earning a lot from the BBC for a long time.

“People aren’t stupid.”

Really? Brexit.

I thought that when I was watching The Wheel last night. The winning contestant got £49000 which was probably life-changing for him but to Michael McIntyre who is currently on a U.K. wide tour it’s surely a drop in the ocean.

I think the same with the daytime competitions on itv. The presenters earn £3000+ per show even on Loose Women. Lorraine Kelly is a millionaire and Holly is even richer!

People are stupid. What about the ones who assault actors in the street because of what their TV character has done or send condolence cards to TV characters?