What’s wrong with people? Not ordinary people, but the superpeople—the excessively talented, wildly successful, world-famous, widely adored, and wealthy beyond measure. Take Cristiano Ronaldo, Serena Williams, and Taylor Swift, a triumphant trio for the ages. Each is blessed with huge talent and a ferocious work ethic. There’s much to love, if only they didn’t seem to love themselves quite so much.
Taylor Swift’s grand gestures
Swift’s talent and generosity are as awesome as the wealth they’ve generated. In a Disney+ docuseries about her Eras tour, she was seen distributing envelopes to emotional crew members, sharing profits. Wonderful! But who has themselves filmed doing that? And now she’s married, which is wonderful too. Millions shared her joy. But was it necessary to book one of the world’s most celebrated venues, bringing New York City to a standstill? At the moment the deed was done, billboards at Madison Square Garden flashed the glad tidings for the world to see.
Adrian Chiles, a broadcaster and writer, recalls his own brief fame: “I was famous once, and I’m quite sure I let my ego race ahead of any talent I had and became insufferable. But even in my prime, had I gotten married, it would not have occurred to me to book out the Crystal Leisure Centre in Stourbridge and flash the happy tidings on big screens for bewildered drivers on the ring road.”
Pop culture and adoration limits
Speaking of Stourbridge, Chiles notes that the band Pop Will Eat Itself formed there. “Did pop eat itself? Will it? Swift seems to have her knife and fork out. I’m waiting for the moment when enough people look up at that billboard and say: ‘Yeah? And?’”
Adoration has its limits. In 2014, U2 and Apple placed their album Songs of Innocence automatically into about half a billion iTunes libraries. There were objections. Bono later admitted: “I had this beautiful idea and we kind of got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs mightn’t be heard.” Their next album should have been called Humility.
Serena Williams at Wimbledon
Ardent self-love has always been part of superstardom, but the needle is pushed deep into the red zone. At Wimbledon, retired tennis star Serena Williams took a wildcard place. She wore large headphones to cancel out crowd noise. She lost to Maya Joint, who got only a cursory handshake. Williams declined the mandatory post-match press conference, citing a sore knee. “The message was clear: this was all about Williams and everyone would have to bend their own knees to her will,” Chiles writes.
Wildcards have their place, but Wimbledon is about elite sport. “There’s only so many times the All England club can let celebrity or legendary status trump athletic competence before something starts to be lost.”
Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-adoration
In team sports, veneration of the individual is even dafter. Ronaldo, never anything other than his own biggest fan, pointed out his brilliance: “Before Cristiano, Portugal had never won a big trophy.” True. But in this World Cup, way past his best, many could see Portugal might be better off without him. Yet FIFA bent rules to excuse him from a suspension for violent conduct that would have seen him miss Portugal’s first two matches. Coach Roberto Martínez likely felt compelled to start him.
“If he were ice-cream, he’d not only lick himself; he’d buy a Mr Whippy van, rename it Mr Ronaldo and serve himself 99s all day long.”
Knowing when to bow out
Everyone needs to know when to bow out. Chiles, who rated himself a good dad for ferrying children, jokes: “If I took Ronaldo’s attitude, I’d now be reliving past glories waiting at the gates of the school my kids left years ago. Just a shame they haven’t commissioned a statue of me there.”
