Thursday, March 19, 2009

One last trip

Actress Natasha Richardson, 45, passed away yesterday due to serious head injuries after falling on a ski slope while vacationing with her family. She was well-known for both her theater and film roles, and was also a Tony Award-winning actress. To get the full story, I opened the USA Today in hopes of finding greater details. After typing in her name in the search engine, I came across an article called Remembering Natasha Richardson, 1963-2009. I was interested in the 5 w's of the story but was skeptical when I read the article's lede:

"The freak accident that killed Natasha Richardson at 45 would have been shocking had it happened to any healthy young woman. But the vitality, dexterity and discipline that distinguished Richardson's acting make her death — the result of brain injuries sustained during a skiing lesson on a beginner's trail outside Montreal earlier this week — all the more cruelly ironic."

Instead of being sympathetic and a tribute to this loss of life, I felt the writer dampened the event of her death with words that did not grant justice to her existence. The lede did get to the nut graf of the article, but it took more than a sentence-and-a-half for the reader to get the answer behind Richardson's death.

The second paragraph in the USA Today article then states:

"For Richardson, those assets were in part inherited traits. She was a member of one of British acting's most prestigious families: daughter of director Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave, sister of Joely Richardson, granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and niece of Lynn and Corin Redgrave. Richardson also was married to an esteemed actor, Liam Neeson, with whom she had two sons, Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12."

Instead of praising her personality, contributions and accomplishments, the writer almost immediately flows right into a list of family members that were also famous and respected. I found this transition a little puzzling: Does the world only care about who we know instead of who we are? Richardson's last trip was with her family and my thoughts and prayers go out to them, I just wish this USA Today article focused more on the people she effected and her zest for entertaining audiences everywhere.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with Brooke's last statement completely. This woman has been active within Hollywood as well as many lives throughout her lifetime that I find it more important to hear about what Natasha did while she was here and living rather than, as Brooke said, her personality. I wanted to hear someone's story about Natasha, help me to see how she was or hear from other people how they will remember her. It was a great article, I've read many seeing as the news has focused on this tragedy lately, as it should.

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