Nowadays, actors (via social media) convince us that they are just like us \u2014 ordinary, everyday people. It\u2019s not enough anymore to go away and make a piece of art. The Hamnet<\/span> trend of sharing its cast dancing to Rihanna is spreading like a virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s Margot Robbie bopping unconvincingly to Kate Bush in a bodice. Ah yes, I did that in my kitchen last week, Margot. And I looked just like you. Maybe we could hang some time and let loose together?<\/p>\n The weird thing is that back in the 1990s, when celebrities inhabited a different galaxy, they looked more like us. Without the circus of image consultants, hair and make-up magicians, Botox ninjas and plastic surgeons, they seemed almost natural.<\/p>\n Genetically superior, yes, but human. Now, an increasing number of celebrities are other-worldly. Look at Heidi Klum struggling to walk in her naked Grammy dress; they are genuinely turning plastic.<\/p>\n The distance between us and them has actually grown, but social and mainstream media pretend the opposite.<\/p>\n I never thought I\u2019d say it but there is one media personality who has done more than most to create this queasy camaraderie between celebrities and the public. I love the show, but Graham Norton makes us feel like we know people we really, really don\u2019t know at all.<\/p>\n The charade began with dynamic duos like Matt Damon and Bill Murray, then James McEvoy and Michael Fassbender. Ever since, it\u2019s been gathering hot air, and stacks and stacks of profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latest heist of public emotion is the \u2018Opalite\u2019 music video that was apparently conceived on the red couch. Can you believe it, people? We are now in the room at the very moment of artistic conception. I mean, we have it on tape, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n Domhnall Gleeson confessing his dream of being in a Taylor Swift video. Taylor looking to the camera, sharing her light bulb moment with us all. Graham, post-production, \u2018wanging on\u2019 about how amazingly down-to earth \u2018Taylor\u2019 is and how her family made him feel at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe wears it so well,\u201d he tells us, her global fame, her billions of dollars. Aren\u2019t we so lucky to know her? I mean to really know her.<\/p>\n “I love this for her,” we say to friends, discussing her relationship with Travis like they\u2019re neighbourhood sweethearts just trying to get by.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t just Norton whose whipping up this faux closeness to make lots of money. Podcasts are doing a great job, making us feel like we know people on an intimate level. Smartless<\/span> with Jason Bateman is right up there, as is Bateman\u2019s recent and most nauseating collaboration with girl-next-door, Jennifer Aniston.<\/p>\n In a reel for LolaVie, the former Friends<\/span> star’s haircare brand, we see her buddy Jason turning up at her house for a haircut. Oh, it\u2019s all very meta, what with Aniston being famed for her Rachel haircut, but it\u2019s also another example of us being led to believe that these people act just like us, popping to one another\u2019s houses solo for a chat.<\/p>\n \u201cI hear you’re doing hair now,\u201d Bateman says to Aniston. \u201cFirstly, I don\u2019t even have a smock on. So, I don\u2019t know what your rates are but they should be low.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019re all so busy being entertained that we miss the punchline. It\u2019s us. We\u2019re the punchline! The lowly people who must walk into actual hairdressers and put our hands in our pockets for a service.<\/p>\n Beyond being annoying, this pantomime is affecting art. As Colin Sheridan excellently pointed out a few months back, the love-ins between actors are becoming vomit-inducing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Remember when we could just go into a cinema and watch a film without having to filter out all the marketing noise? I had to work hard to keep Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley at bay when watching Hamnet<\/span>. It shouldn\u2019t be so hard. It shouldn\u2019t be so much about the actors that it is becoming less about the art.<\/p>\n Another consequence is our potential drift away from real friendships in real life. I\u2019m enjoying Tanya Sweeney\u2019s Esther is Following You<\/span> this week. It\u2019s Sweeney\u2019s debut novel, about a woman who forms an emotional attachment to a celebrity online.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her real relationships suffer terribly. I\u2019m not suggesting we\u2019re all becoming online stalkers, but there is a technology creep happening. I have certainly grown accustomed to heading off on a walk with the companionship of a beloved podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n Five years ago, I might have called a friend, but it\u2019s easy to just listen and be amused. You can\u2019t say the wrong thing, can you? It feels emotionally safe. We think little of the fact that it\u2019s entirely one-sided. I am, after all, the only one investing time in the \u2014 can I call it \u2014 relationship?<\/p>\n But it gets worse. At the core of this \u2018we\u2019re just normal people\u2019 stuff is something deeply cynical and manipulative. It reached its peak last week, when news of James Van Der Beek\u2019s death hit the internet along with the establishment of a GoFundMe page to help his bereaved family.<\/p>\n The death of such a young person is deeply tragic and horrific for his wife and six children, and for his extended family and friends. It\u2019s understandable that people want to give money to help.<\/p>\n However, we do not know this man. He is not our friend, no matter how many Instagram reels he shared. I grew up on ![\"(Left](\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/cms_media\/module_img\/9945\/4972904_9_articleinline_2.81852713.jpg.jpg\" "\\"(Left")
(Left to right) Taylor Swift, Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Domhnall Gleeson and Lewis Capaldi on the Graham Norton Show last year where the \u2018Opalite\u2019 music video that was apparently conceived on the red couch. File picture: Matt Crossick\/PA Media Assignments\/PA<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/cms_media\/module_img\/9945\/4972925_7_articleinline_34cf2bdfdb2d4a58ae55dfb1d9973660.jpg.jpg\" "\\"James")
James Van Der Beek. File photo: Richard Shotwell\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n