Celebrity: Dominick Dunne

While an interesting documentary, I can't tell if the people producing it were trying to shine a light on the terrifying creature Dominick Dunne was.... and he didn't even know it. Dominick Dunne is clear that he is an absolute Hollywood and celebrity fan. He wants only to hob knob with the Hollywood elite and thus he moved from New York to LA at his first opportunity. He spend his life in pursuit of living in the limelight with the beautiful people... and even though it cost him dearly, so much was his desire to be one of them... nothing stopped him. He got his kids involved in the Hollywood machine and that, more than anything else, likely lead to the death of his daughter.

In this documentary he talks with pride about how he (he says) destroyed the career of the Judge involved in his daughter's case. Assuming that is true, to me, that is terrifying and short sighted. Judges enforce the law. To use celebrity status to go after someone doing his job is just despicable. The hard job would have been to use his celebrity status to get the law changed. No destroy someone's life -- not even the guy that killed his daughter. Why stop with the Judge? Why not go after the doctor's that didn't save his daughter? No, Dominick goes after the person who can't fight back -- a Judge - who is not allowed to.

He then talks with pride about how he is proud of his ability to use his power (via Vanity Fair) to be judge jury and executioner with regard to people that he doesn't like. Of course, in the press you can write what you want and never be questioned about your assertions. He sees this as a good thing. That is terrifying. He spent the rest of his career targeting celebs that, in his mind, were not worthy of fair treatment. Though he talks about how celebs get special treatment he seems to not even consider his role in trying to prejudice large portions of the public against that celebrity. That isn't journalism. And if journalists are going to change their role into self appointed PR People, we need new laws to address this.

I am thrilled to see that Dominick Dunne is dead. At least his reign of terror is over. I only hope that people do not follow in his footsteps.