Coldplay kiss cam woman talks about viral moment
Christine Cabot spoke about her viral moment during an interview on the Oprah Podcast.
Christine Cabot, one of the actors behind the Coldplay kiss cam scandal, has slammed Gwyneth Paltrow and others who have taken advantage of the viral moment, saying they did it without considering how the increased attention would affect the lives of those involved.
“I’m sure the first moments were interesting to people, and I appreciate that,” Cabot said on “The Oprah Podcast” on March 17. “I don’t think people will actually stop and think that there’s a real human being behind this and it’s incredibly destructive.”
Media and psychology experts say it’s not uncommon to obsess over other people’s unpleasant moments or mistakes because it makes us feel better about ourselves. It’s a phenomenon called schadenfreude: when we find joy, delight, and satisfaction in the troubles, failures, and pain of others, we ultimately reveal more about ourselves than others.
Robert Thompson, founding director of the Brier Television Popular Culture Center at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, previously told USA TODAY, “We love to see people climb toward wealth and status, but when they actually get there, one of the only narrative threads left is watching them fall.” “If you look at the many examples of the stories we tell, we get a lot of Schadenfreude joy from them.”
Cabot said she found Paltrow’s involvement in the uproar in particular “really unfortunate.” The actress and businesswoman created mock ads as a “temporary spokesperson” for Astronomer, the technology company that employed Cabot at the time.
“I felt like Gwyneth, someone who founded or centered a company on improving women and women’s well-being. She doesn’t need the money. I don’t know why she felt the need to add fuel to the fire and get involved in all of this. It felt really hypocritical and unnecessary to me,” Cabot said.
Another psychological theory beyond schadenfreude, called “social comparison,” can explain our love for this type of drama, West Virginia University associate professor Elizabeth Cohen previously told USA TODAY.
Social downward comparison is consuming media solely to look down on others, a behavior that tends to dominate social media environments.
“Social media activity is an endless cycle of controversy and anger, and our divine right to say what we want to anyone without consequences,” David Schmidt, an associate professor of English at the University at Buffalo, previously told USA TODAY. “We chew[someone]up, spit them out, and then move on to someone else, and it continues at a nauseating pace, matching our ever-decreasing attention spans.”
Ryan Reynolds also participated in the ad, which was posted on Astronomer’s social media channels.
“He created and produced the ad, and his wife just went through something really similar last year,” Cabot said, referring to the long legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. “I think it’s really amazing that he thought this was a great way to lead.”
Winfrey said in the interview that Paltrow told her that she only ran the ad because Cabot had agreed to do it, otherwise “she wouldn’t have done it.” Cabot said he disagreed.
Gossip is inevitable, but it’s better for people to put their energy into positive messages than negative ones, Erica Tito-Childs, dean of Hunter College’s Ruth and Harold Newman College of Arts and Sciences, previously told USA TODAY.
“When you make more of this hypercritical speculation about the lives of people you don’t know, whether they’re celebrities or your neighbors, it has the same effect,” Tito-Childs explained. “That’s a negative thing.”
Contributor: Katie Camero, USA TODAY
