Am I the only one who isn’t mad that she concocted a persona with a different backstory than hers? As someone who studies 19th to early-to-mid 20th century cinema and celebrity, that is what was done and that perfectly aligns with her aesthetic. In the victorian and right up until the 1950s and sprinklings beyond that; it was the celebrity archetype to fabricate fantastical stories about your cultural background, your relation to famous historical figures, dramatic life stories. It was known that above all else, these people were entertainers and not only did not owe their audience an honest preview into their personal lives, that they couldn’t be expected to do that, and it was part of the glamour and mystique of celebrity.
I’m especially not mad that she lied/continues to lie about her family dying in a fire, such a dramatic lie could only stem from a deeply frayed-possibly-abusive familial relationship and as a survivor myself, if that telltale is how she unconsciously chooses to signify the permanence of the separation then that is entirely her prerogative and not ours to question the ethics of.
The reason why someone is estranged from their family is indeed for them to know and everyone else to find out, as the axiom goes. It’s when they then go on to adding to the narrative tragedy like fire and violent death that can be easily disproven, and that people are going to respond negatively to, that there is a problem. She is exploiting, pure and simple, very real scenarios that affect so, so many (even her then-close friends!), when she could simply say: “I don’t talk about my family”, and that would be that. Whether the fire story and all her other lies were born out of malice or ignorance (in my opinion, the one does not preclude the other) doesn’t really matter. Those of us who don’t have a horde of flying monkeys on hand to defend our tactless behavior have to take responsibility for our words and actions.
