In case you missed it, last week Cara Delevigne had a verbal dust up with the hosts of Good Morning Sacramento during her satellite media tour promoting the movie, Paper Towns.
As the clip of the “awkwark exchange” went viral, the ladies at The View naturally weighed in. Whoopi thought Cara should “suck it up” then declared “she’s not famous. I’M FAMOUS” with the slightly less than insightful Raven-Symone saying maybe it had to do with Cara’s period (I know, Gloria Steinem, I know).
But when Raven tried ye olde “it’s a generational thing” La Whoop shut her right down: There’s professional and there’s unprofessional.
Amen.
This led to the kind of lively group chat on the Abel Intermedia FB community page that I love. It’s why we build community.
Sides were taken. Some thought Cara D rightfully pushed back on the rudeness of the Sacramento anchors. Many were Team Whoopi.
I’m not taking sides. Everyone gets a lash with a wet noodle. This was not bad service at Starbucks. This was a work situation. Everybody involved was guilty of being unprofessional.
Is being rude to guests part of the Good Day Sacramento schtick? If yes, I say no thanks. And someone should pass along the memo that millennials don’t do snark.
If the occasional celebrity or publicist with attitude gets your pants in a twist you might want to rethink your profession. It comes with the territory.
Cara Delevigne was at work too. She’s a willing participant in the entertainment industrial complex. She models. She appears in Taylor Swift videos. She has to do satellite media tours.
They are not fun. You sit in an airless, windowless closet for up to 8 hours with an IFB in your ear talking to a camera. (If Cara watched the footage that went viral it was the first time she actually saw the Scourges of Sacramento.)
If you’ve been media-trained, you know how to keep your energy up. You focus on words and images to keep you on track. There’s a reason a pink post it with a happy face lives on the camera in my office.
Every time I watch the clip I wonder if something transpired just before they rolled tape. Everybody was on their worst behavior right out of the gate.
Someone should take Cara aside and let her know sarcasm is not a winning strategy for ingénues in these United States. (Although someone at 20th Century Fox marketing is plotzing because no press is bad press and this got a ton of press.)
My advice: ask yourself, WWBCD? What would Benedict Cumberbatch do? Arguably the reigning Most Charming Person In The World, BC has mastered how not to let it get to him.
Smile. Suck it up. Be Professional
One Response
This makes so much sense. Cara should be grateful for her career and humble throughout interviews. As a professional she should have taken the high road and even if agitated by the anchors delivery should have handled with grace rather than an attitude. It would have made her look like the bigger person. Cara D consider this a lesson learned.