Jade Goody Picks Her Grave

JADE Goody celebrity cancer: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Jade Goody’s celebrity cancer with Jade’s grave, Natasha Richardson and Kerry Katona…

Jade Goody is only on one of the newspaper’s front pages (Daily Star), her celebrity cancer usurped by the sudden death for actress Natasha Richardson.

Daily Star: “Jade’s Final Resting Place”

Her last appearance.

After, Jade’s last interview, Jade’s last wedding, Jade’s last dress, Jade’s last fight, Jade’s last slice of toast, Jade’s last Christening, Jade’s last party, Jade’s Last Rites; Jade’s last view, Jade’s last breath and Jade’s last Mother’s Day.

This will be the final resting place for Jade Goody – a flower-filled churchyard that echoes to the sound of happy playing children.

Anyone of you been to a churchyard echoing to the sound of anything but grumbling old ladies and emptiness?

The tranquil graveyard, which is expected to become a place where fans can pay their respects to the reality TV star, sits next to the local Church of England School.

Tranquil and full of children?

One churchgoer said: “I am sure she will be happy to know her final resting place will always have the sound of children playing.”

Can you get buried in a Centre Parks?

Her spokesman Max Clifford says of the Jade funeral:

“She wants everybody to be there, with plenty of room outside for screens. She wants it to be a big celebration because it’s her final farewell to everybody. It will be a very Jade Goody event, exactly the way she wants it.”

Daily Telegraph: “Darth Vader actor pays tribute to Jade Goody - The actor who played Darth Vader in Star Wars has paid tribute to fellow cancer sufferer Jade Goody.”

Does he have a name? Does he have face – the Tabloid Telegraph illustrates the story with Dark Vader’s death mask. You are reading CCN (Celebrity Cancer News):

Says David Prowse:

“I now know what it’s like to go through this treatment, and I have sympathy for anyone in the same position. Jade should be commended for her achievements, and should be thoroughly proud of raising the awareness of cervical cancer. She has done more than anyone else in memory to convince women to go for regular tests.”

Adding:

“If I can do the same for prostate cancer in men, then I will be happy.”

Irish Times: “And now for something completely different . . .”

Orna Mulacahy sort of gets it:

There’s been the guilty fix of watching Jade Goody die, poor lamb, while in pictures, it’s riveting to see Kate Moss step in and out of nightclubs, looking fabulous at 9pm and shocking some hours later when she’s either ripped her dress, fallen over or let her top fall down.

It’s all just news – the language of the media makes all it reports on the same. It is all sensation.

The Times: Caitlin Moran wonders:

So, where is the dilemma about cynicism? Well, perhaps CW is, after all, more battle-weary than it thought but it does seem a little…coincidental that in the week Jade Goody’s life ebbs away, Britain’s No2 Reality TV Star suddenly comes back into the public eye. Now CW isn’t suggesting that Katona planned the implosion of her marriage. Not consciously. But, in the way that an athlete has an innate instinct for timing a late surge, perhaps the great reality stars of our time are the ones who have an inherent aptitude for finding new chaos in their lives, at just the right time.

Daily Mail: Martin Samuel makes a point, even if he does write for the scare story Mail:

This week, OK! magazine brought out a tribute issue commemorating the life of Jade Goody who inconveniently for them, while stricken with terminal cancer, is not actually dead yet.

Being a weekly, they were not going to risk being beaten to the punch by her passing an inopportune six days from publication, so got their tawdry, tear-streaked memorial in first. ‘Jade Goody 1981-2009,’ OK announced with cheerful confidence. ‘In loving memory,’ read a strap-line. Clearly not praying for a miracle, then.

And one might wonder what sort of ghoul buys an opportunistic eulogy to a young woman who is clinging to her brief time on earth.

Babble (Aus): “Are You Guilty of Consuming ‘Death Porn’?”

Show me the bodies.

This thirst for detail on the grim lives and deaths of virtual strangers has been dubbed ‘death porn’ by opinion columnist Michelle Cazzulino at The Daily Telegraph…

It’s not death porn – it’s mourn porn. Gather round the story to be part of it. Grieving can be fun. Emote.

Cazzulino calls this obsession with tragedy and sadness ‘titillating’ but I’m not sure I agree. Yes, the onslaught of stories can be overwhelming - and here at Babble Australia we don’t even publish everything our U.S counterparts do when it comes to grim ‘updates’.

But as parents and parents-to-be, I feel that the Babble community reads and comments on these stories because they mean something to us. How do you say goodbye to your children when you know your end is near? How can we protect ourselves and our kids from accident and injury? How do parents and children move on after the loss of a loved one? These are not subjects easily discussed in real life. Death is a taboo.

Er, no, it isn’t.

I think, by following these stories, we are trying to come to grips with the big giant mess of life, and celebrity lives serve as parables.

OK! is a Bible.

MyParkMag: “Best Mum - Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie or Katie Holmes?”

Jade Goody must stand a good chance of being named Best Mum 2009 as she is doing everything she can to provide for her two boys. Who do think is the best celebrity mum out there?

Elisabeth Fritzl.

Times & Star: “Prejudice aside, it’s still pretty fine to be British”

A Jo Lister delivers a tribute to tolerance in Britain, while testing that of her reader:

The nation seems to be generally and genuinely upset about the plight of others, from Jade Goody’s terrible illness to children suffering from malaria in Africa… Okay, there are many things we can find fault with in this country and its people, but is any nation perfect?

We may be a multicultural nation, but as roast chicken and all the trimmings is the nation’s most cooked dish, and we still insist on fair play, queuing up politely and not eating off our knives, I think that being British is really a pretty fine thing to be.

Spicezee: “Doctors praise fighter Jade Goody`s strong heart”

The friend said: “Doctors are saying Jade is only hanging on because she has such a strong heart. They`ve rarely seen such a fighter.”

Jade Goody is not dead… Read her life so far.

Anorak

Posted: 20th, March 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (25) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink