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Normally, when someone of note dies, we try to post a brief clip of them as our completely inadequate attempt at taking a small moment out of our panda-fart-filled day to recognize that life is far too brief; that it can end at any moment. But in the case of Natasha Richardson, things get a little more complicated. First of all, a search for her name on YouTube pulls up nothing but depressingly shitty and shrill gossip web shows featuring stories about her skiing accident sandwiched in announcements about what Ashlee Simpson is up to. Second of all, to be completely honest–because when taking an open-eyed look at the circle of life it is important to be honest, seriously, it is–we barely even really knew who she was before this week. She had a famous name, and it all kind of makes sense now, but we remember very clearly that when she was a celebrity guest judge on the most recent season of Top Chef, we were confused as to why she was there and what made her a celebrity in the first place. Perhaps if we lived in England? The only point we are trying to make with that aside is that it’s hard to memorialize someone that you’re unfamiliar with, and that (again, honesty) in a gruesome, macabre way, we can’t help but feel like the attention this has gotten in the media is akin to a hometown going crazy when the hockey team makes it into the playoffs when two months ago no one gave a fuck about hockey. If that makes sense. Sorry. But people die every day. People are dying right now.
But third, and most importantly, the death of Natasha Richardson is the most shocking and surprising death in recent memory, at least in the year we’ve been writing Videogum, at least in the world of film, television, and the internet, and as such it seems particularly obnoxious and insufficient to attempt to eulogize her on a tongue-in-cheek, burn-your-idols pop culture blog. It is one of those deaths where, like, it’s so easy to imagine her that morning, happily preparing for her day, and that brings up so many weird, half-morbid ideas about fate and inevitability and you start thinking about your own mornings when you happily prepare for something, and the whole thing becomes kind of terrifying in its efficient ability to point out the fragility of everything. Obviously, it’s morally questionable to try to place the tragic-ness of someone’s death on a tragedy-scale, and people die every day who certainly lived far less fulfilling and happy (one assumes, actually, the whole thing is a web of unknowns) lives than Natasha Richardson. But if all deaths are equally tragic in their own way, especially when old age and/or illness is not involved (as if that somehow alleviates the pain of such a loss), then the death of Natasha Richardson is very tragic indeed.
Goodbye, Natasha Richardson. You are in heaven now, happily preparing for your day with the angels.
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Maybe you should have said nothing at all.
Either that, or you should also eulogize my grandpa. It’s ok that you know nothing about him.
I don’t understand why this comment was downvoted.
nothing wrong with Gabe’s post. it’s pretty dead on.
aren’t you the master of puns.
“It is one of those deaths where, like, it’s so easy to imagine her that morning, happily preparing for her day, and that brings up so many weird, half-morbid ideas about fate and inevitability and you start thinking about your own mornings when you happily prepare for something, and the whole thing becomes kind of terrifying in its efficient ability to point out the fragility of everything.”
yes.
dude. what is wrong with you? how are you unsure of natasha richardson’s accomplishments? she was an incredible theater actress and was incredible in films like gothic, patty hearst, the handmaid’s tale, the comfort of strangers, and asylum. she did incredible things for amfAR. the fact that all you know her from is top chef just shows what a douche you are. and the reason you can’t find much of her on youtube is because she wasn’t an asshole. she was a good woman that did good work. we tend not to put people like that on youtube. and why are you using youtube as a measurement of what’s relevant. why so negative? about everything? it’s not charming. it’s not cute. it’s not funny. and in this particular instance, it’s offensive.
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yeah. that’s what i said.
CNN.com’s headline earlier this week was “Family visits ski fall actress.” She was not as famous as you think she was.
Oh, I get it. It’s really all about you.
Oh boy, this is going to get bad before it gets better.
Gabe, I understand what you’re saying, and I’m sure its going to be picked apart by every oversenstivie asshole out there. And I’m not exactly your biggest fan, but I do have to agree with you. Natasha Richardson’s death was an absolute tragedy, but a week ago I had no idea who she was. To me, it feels like every year the media needs its BIG TRAGIC CELEBRITY DEATH, and once they get it, they go hog-wild. Last year it was obviously Heath Ledger, and I’m sure they’ve been getting antsy not having the opportunity to cook up half-baked memorials to a celebrity they never really paid attention to when they were alive.
Reporters are mostly just doing their job. Would you prefer it if the media didn’t report on her death? So you wouldn’t feel awkward about not knowing who she was and conflicted about being kind of interested?
not really, no.
I don’t feel awkward about no knowing who she was. I don’t know who a solid 99.99% of the people who die every day are. That doesn’t make me any less interested in their lives. But I’m also not going to suddenly start caring about a person in death whom I never cared about in life. That’s just ridiculous and reeks of insincerity.
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How is he mocking anyone’s death?
Nicely said. I didn’t find that poisonous at all, and every now and then THAT’S JUST FINE. Even for Videogum.
Everyone and everything dies except Cher, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, and the Britney Spears hype.
Well said.
I don’t get why people think this post is disrespectful? But then, I only knew her from the (adorbs) Parent Trap remake with Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Lohan. Anyway, all deaths are political in that someone’s always there to tell you you’re having the wrong reaction. Someone died, everybody dies, death is the great equalizer, life is fragile etc., maybe these are kind of trite attempts to grapple with the enormity of death but how is it offensive?? I’m gonna go find a puppy to hug because yay I am alive.
The Parent Trap was really great and she was lovely in it. If the Disney Channel were to air it again soon, I’d watch.
In the meantime, I feel so bad for Liam Neeson (and their sons) and keep thinking of the scene at the beginning of Love Actually when he’s eulogizing his wife. That just got a little too real.
Oh yeah, I just got the shivers. That poor man.
This is one of the more thoughtful things I have read on VIdeogum. To be honest I had no idea who she was until I was lurking on Wikipedia for the name of the blonde chick on Nip/Tuck a few months ago, So to be fair. she was relatively a C-List at best actress who was married to an awesome A-List actor. Her work really wasn’t that mind blowing or revolutionary. It was horrible that she died and that it was so sudden, but celebrity death is what brings the media like moths to a flame.
Death = Sensational Stories = Ratings = $$$
I’m not saying I was a big Natasha Richardson fan, but the cultural stupidity on this thread is really alarming. She was only a “C-list” actress by the most parochial American TV-watching standards, and even if you didn’t know who she was before her death, it doesn’t take that much effort to find out that she was a hugely respected stage actress on Broadway and in London.
So “to be fair,” the only way you could have personally judged whether her work was “mind-blowing” was by actually seeing her on stage, which, let’s be honest here, I don’t think you did.
I’ve actually seen some of her stage performances and I still was not entirely impressed with her.
Didn’t you just say you had “no idea who she was”?
Yes, but seeing her stage work, I had no idea who she was or cared at the time. She just seemed like a run of the mill actress. I apologize I didn’t bother to Google the cast when I got home.
all of this FORCED SENTIMENTALITY is way more offensive than being honest about the subject.
“But third, and most importantly, the death of Natasha Richardson is the most shocking and surprising death in recent memory, at least in the year we’ve been writing Videogum, at least in the world of film, television, and the internet”
David Foster Wallace. You guys loved him! And were respectfully silent about his death.
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I don’t hope that Gabe blows up, but this was kind of awesome.
you’re really emo about this. maybe start a private message board where you and the rest of the NR fan community can grieve together.
Do you monitor this site to defend Gabe?
Do you have children?
i’m totally Gabe’s mom.
Gabe’s mom knows what an asshole he is. This American Life, anyone?
Gabe’s job is to comment on media/entertainment in an interesting and humorous way. He was more than respectful in noting how media outlets are sensationalizing her death because they have nothing to talk about. And the only reason the media is reporting on her the way they are is because she was married to Liam Neeson and Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter which they mention EVERY time they mention her name. If you don’t like it then you need to find a different blog to read and get outta here.
So you’re a big Natasha Richardson fan and she died. Sorry if I’m not familiar with her whole back catalog like you are. If Aphex Twin, whom I love, died in a horrible car wreck tomorrow and Gabe made the same comments you wouldn’t give a shit b/c you don’t know who he is.
says the guy with two first names
I will admit that when I first started reading this it got on my nerves too (because I very much know who NR was, and why her death is a huge loss), but if you actually READ THE ENTIRE THING you will find that it’s not what it seems initially. 2009 should be the year of reading entire blog posts before wishing harm on the author’s mother in comments.
Agreed, I wouldn’t go around insulting Gabe’s mother just because Gabe is supposed to be FORCED into memorializing a not very well known actress.
I read the whole thing twice. Whatever valid social/philosophical observations Gabe may have made were negated by title of the post and the completely tone-deaf last line. And I could be wrong, but I don’t think any of the commenters were honestly wishing harm on anyone.
Agreed. I found it to be under thought and misinformed. Better not to post this at all, or make it a news headline blurb between longer posts linking to an actual news story if you’re FORCED to mention it here. I’m usually a fan here, and I found this pretty tasteless (in the bad sort of way).
I don’t understand what is so disrespectful about someone stating that they were unfamiliar with a person’s work.
If she was giving birth to another child, or if she had gotten into a public brawl with her sister, people would comment on it, but it wouldn’t be a headline — it would be somewhere near the bottom. But her death is a headline and I think Gabe eloquently nailed why that is. Because death is scary and unknown and when it comes seemingly out of nowhere it reminds us all of our own mortality.
I don’t know. I think you summed that up better, and more respectfully, than Gabe did in his post.
I’m going to say one more thing about this and then shut the fuck up. Nobody was forcing Videogum to eulogize Natasha Richardson. If the editors of Videogum thought some mention should be made of her death, it seems very obvious that Lindsay would have been the better person for the job, since she knew and respected NR’s work. To me, a post acknowledging someone’s (very recent) death is not really the place to be making (not very original or illuminating) observations about the whorishness of the media and the randomness of death and your own cultural ignorance, and then wrapping it all up with (maybe sarcastic, who knows) fond wishes for the deceased. It’s not about sentimentality. It’s about motherfucking respect.
I think maybe what Gabe was trying to do with the Youtube and Top Chef comments was to point out how, apart from the whole making you stop and ponder for a moment about the fleetingness of life thing, the level of coverage and outpouring over Natasha Richardson is akin to the sorta quiet kid in high school that died in a car accident or whatever, and suddenly everyone loved him so much and had been really close with him and all that b.s. This is a woman who was more famous for being related/married to famous famous people than for her own work. How many of you out there knew she was a Tony winner before yesterday? Also, that was ten years ago. As Gabe said, the recent high point of her celebrity was being a guest judge on Top Chef. The reason there aren’t clips of her work all over Youtube is not because she was too well respected, it’s because she wasn’t popular enough. It’s very sad that she died suddenly, but no more so than any regular person. Quit pretending that you’ve been faithfully watching your tape of The Handmaid’s Tale every Sunday for the past 20 years.
Best comment on the thread so far
I actually have been watching that tape every day for the past 20 years. I mean, c’mon!
This. Definitely this.
I don’t know. I’m pretty young and I know who she is, but I’m ridiculously obsessed with Hollywood in general and love the Redgraves. (Vanessa Redgrave is her mother).
Though I’m not going to spew hatred at Gabe for this post, I’m not all that into it and feel that maybe he shouldn’t have touched on her death at all. As for not knowing who she is/was, that just seems silly to admit when you write for a website based solely on entertainment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH0MosoWLfo
Between this and commenters not realizing that Tracy Morgan created Brian Fellows years ago…well, I think I’m just too old for Videogum.
All this post did to offend me was make me think too much about death while listening to Of Montreal. Guys I’m a freshman! Don’t want to think about what she did the morning before she died! Scary!
I mean, I may be in-love-with-gabe-biased, but I really didn’t think he meant any insensitivity. It was just very honest and an interesting read. Of course I feel terrible for the woman and her family, but I honestly didn’t know who she was until I got into the COMMENTS even.
Dear Gabe — can Lindsay do all the writing from now on?
Joking, but seriously, what was the point of the post? It’s not that I had some sort of issue with it, but really. why? Just to say: hey, usually we’d write a short blip quazi paying our respects, but since NR was neither a nobody or a superstar, we have to write about her, but I’m going to show that I don’t give a fuck? Clearly, you didn’t for a reaction — clearly, Mission accomplished.
HANDMAID’S TALE……….WATCH IT!!!!!
Hey, you know what? You didn’t phone it in. You didn’t talk about Ms. Richardson like she was sainted just because she died. You didn’t frantically research her on Wikipedia to make it look like you’ve been a fan of hers for years. And, honestly, people need to stop getting their knickers in a bind because OH MY GOD SOMEONE SAID SOMETHING ON THE INTERNET THAT THEY DIDN’T AGREE WITH. And, really, who IS fit to eulogise a deceased person other than his or her immediate family and close friends? Even as a member of the media, I know all we can really do is get some sappy soundbites from loved ones and paste together a loose post-mortem best-of reel. You did your part and you did it better and far more genuinely than these easy-to-offend schmucks could even dream of. And not just because you know how to put together a coherent sentence. Kudos to you, Sir. And kudos again.
Look, I don’t give a shit about NR, but using her picture and talking about her as a jumping off point to discuss mortality is you doing the exact same thing you’re damning everyone else for doing. Just because you preface it by saying that you don’t know anything about her and don’t want to do some “shitty, shrill” memorial piece doesn’t negate the fact that you’re still posting your thoughts about her death for everyone to read.
Death is death and by no means a way to make shots at people…unless they are douchebags then its okay.
Wow, Depressinggum.com. Eerily, I randomly saw The Handmaid’s Tale not a week ago and had been thinking about it a lot, and now this. I used to be obsessed with The (new) Parent Trap and loved her in it. It is definitely one of those “It really makes you think” situations (if anyone’s seen that Daria episode you know what I mean). Anyway, I’ve kind of lost the original thrust of this post with all these overwrought comments from dissenters and apologists. What are we even debating here? Whether Richardson was respected enough to warrant public mourning? Whether this post was necessary? Whether Gabe is an insensitive dude who overconsiders EVERYTHING? I think the answers to these questions are pretty obvious: Sure, it’s irrelevant, and probably (respectively). Anyway, I’m just going to go get on with the rest of my day, because I’m sure that’s what Natasha Richardson would have wanted for herself and everyone else in the world.
Every one of us will be dead one day. The best you can hope for is that in death you life will inspire others to talk about their own lives relative to yours. No one is due any post-mortem respect. I would argue that respect is only meaningfully paid in life. If the suddenness and peculiarity of Natasha Richardson’s death put Gabe in a contemplative mood, then so be it.
My take is surprisingly similar to Gabe’s. While Natasha Richardson’s death is obviously a tragedy on a personal level for her family, I have a hard time understanding the public outcry.
I believe it was the speed of the onset of brain death after a seemingly innocuous slip and fall that brought all the, likely unwanted, attention to the Redgrave and Neeson households. I bet the added step of “taking her off life support” makes people feel nervous and sad about it. If she had been in a car accident, or merely died in a high speed skiing accident where she was physically wrecked/disfigured and killed on the spot I don’t think there would have been nearly the same emotional/psychological reaction. But leaving behind a body that looks so normal and lovely makes people feel anxious about life in general. She couldn’t have predicted or avoided her demise by smoking less or drinking less or jogging more or screaming less and being more polite or generally building up better karma. Her life contract simply expired, and that’s hard to reconcile with popular notions of good living.
This whole when-someone-dies-we-need-to-be-respectful-of-them thing is bullshit and hypocritical. Do it to them when they’re alive if you want to be a good person, because they certainly can’t hear all of the great things you have to say about once they’re dead. Everyone whose feathers are ruffled over Gabe being “insensitive” has never really cared about him being way harsher to people who are still alive. Why do none of you have a problem with that? Why doesn’t your outrage carry over to the people who are living from outrage over the people who are dead? You’re just a bunch of fucking hypocrites if that’s the standard you’ve set up for yourself so please, shut the fuck up, honoring people once they are dead does not make you a good person when you wouldn’t have given them the time of day when they were alive.
Because the people who are still alive could defend themselves, that’s why.
Gabe, I’m glad you posted this. Maybe it’s a little tiny bit flippant and self-serving, but it suits the venue and frankly I’m glad to see something so honest. I hate the way death brings out the worst disingenuous dishonesty in people. I’ve been disgusted with how the vultures of the gossip media have been salivating over this item, giving it the kind of attention they normally give to Lindsay Lohan’s latest DUI or whatever. A wife and mother of two who happened to have a career that some people use as a platform for personal self-aggrandizement does not deserve that sort of treatment. Her death, being so sudden and seemingly senseless, is indeed quite sad.
But she deserves better than dishonest, voyeuristic apotheosis in her death. She deserves in death the same kind of privacy she obviously sought in life. The fact that you knew who she was, or thought she was particularly good at her job, doesn’t entitle you to feel some great personal loss at her death.
Did you really just say that we’re not entitled to feel a loss? Since when has that ever been about entitlement?? It’s a FEELING. It’s not like I want an invite to her memorial service.
Prying interest into the lives of total strangers is always about entitlement.
How is feeling loss prying? Natasha was a (reasonably) successful actress , which is a very public profession. I don’t think anybody who didn’t know her is mourning the loss of her as a mother, wife or friend. They couldn’t possibly. I think they’re mourning her public persona, and the light her acting brought into their life briefly.
I tend to hate on Gabe sometimes when he gets serious, especially in matter pertaining to race and poverty, but this is spot on and brilliant. The most honest reflection on the incident as possible, summarizes my feelings completely about her death and celebrity deaths perfectly. Gabe for president of being right.
Also, I love when people bring up an actresses contributions to society…guy, an aid workers in darfur were killed a few days ago. Were you so incensed about that death? That is a contribution to society.
Geez, what did the living say about the dead before the internet? I sure am glad that now I can find out every motherfucker’s opinion about things. Didn’t mind this post, though.
Gabe, you seem to think that you are the only one with these MIND BLOWING realizations about life and death, but you’re not. I have had similar thoughts around the death of Anna Nicole Smith and I’m sure many other people reading have contemplated the fragility of life. But the recent death of a person many people hold in high regard is not time to unleash the brilliance of your mind on the world. Obviously there are people dying everyday and their lives are not less important than Natasha Richardsons but we can only be upset about the deaths of people we know. The more people know you the more people are going to be upset when you die, it’s just that simple. A famous person in known by millions of people, so millions of people are going to be sad when they die, not a hard concept to grasp. If the story of a young girl who died was published all over the world with details of her life and death, who had previously been unknown, then billions of people would care about it. It doesn’t matter if nobody knew about her when she was alive, the fact that we are hearing about a sad story makes us care.
Strangers quarreling with other strangers. Really? It’s not like he made a personal attack on any one of the commenters in particular; I don’t understand why people are getting defensive. What I got from this post was: “Natasha Richardson died and we tried to find a clip off youtube to pay a general respect to the death of her, but she didn’t have anything on youtube.” Probably for a good reason. Youtube is complete trash. Everyone knows that. Videogum mocks youtube for being so trashy everyday. To me, this post was the equivalent of The Soup saying that they never had a reason to mock Heath Ledger on their show while he was alive and respect that he was never in the trashy social Hollywood scene. Just sayin’.
Everything about this post and comment section is disgusting to me. Videogum never should have addressed this sensitive subject. They’re considered a humor venue, and everyone knows there’s a window of time before it’s just “too soon.” Now it’s just creating debates that do more injustice to her memory than the post, itself
I love the internet. This was a thoughtful post on the sad subject of an actress’ death, and an attempt to work out the mechanics of the crazy internet/media reaction, and the commenters here managed to be completely outraged at gabe’s “insensitivity and disrespect” and then in the same breath to insult his mother and say they hope he dies. Perfect.
Burn it to the ground, indeed.
Just simmer down everyone. I honestly thought she played professor Trelawney in Harry Potter for like 2 days…I was telling everyone she died and they were all like “Natasha who?” and I was like “Trelawney from Harry Potter” and they would go “ahhhhh…oh thats sad!” Then I wikipedia’d her and saw that it was actually Emma Thompson and I don’t feel bad in the least. Its always sad when someone dies but everyone has a right to feel/think/say however and whatever they want, end of story. RIP Not Trelawney and Condolences to Liam Neeson and family.
It’s Liam Neeson’s wife. Liam Neeson is going to hunt down the exact spot of the accident and Liam Neeson is going to kill it.
^ Agreed, he’ll phone up Snow and be all like:
“I do have a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for Snow like you.”
Then rev a hair dryer on HOT setting for a good 30 seconds into the phone.