I read the book and watched the film, but that was a long time ago. Katharina was associated with RAF terrorism, wasn't she? Fassbinder was a great director, I remember that I liked both. I'll think about other novels etc. dealing with this subject, there must be more of this.

It seems to be the price you have to pay for being a celebrity. Some people argue that stars earn so much money and are so privileged that they simply have to accept the loss of privacy. This is or course debatable. I only hope that people like Ben are able to deal with this and preserve a sort of private life. I think for people who get famous at a very young age this might be more difficult than for him.

But with Katharina Blum it is different as she is a perfectly average, unknown woman whose life is destroyed by the despicable practices of a tabloid paper. It has always been a method of BILD Zeitung (the paper in question) to pillory people and this can be done in the Internet as well, one much faster and more wide-spread than in the press.

SusiGo wrote:

I read the book and watched the film, but that was a long time ago. Katharina was associated with RAF terrorism, wasn't she? Fassbinder was a great director, I remember that I liked both. I'll think about other novels etc. dealing with this subject, there must be more of this.

I didn't even know that there is a film to the book, interesting.
Yes, if I recall correctly she was supposed to be involved with RAF terrorists, which shows the age of the story. But I guess you can replace the RAF with any current "threat", and it still works today.

SusiGo wrote:

It seems to be the price you have to pay for being a celebrity. Some people argue that stars earn so much money and are so privileged that they simply have to accept the loss of privacy. This is or course debatable.

I do believe that things are slightly different for artists who at least initially choose to stand in the lime light (though it should never be acceptable to spread lies about anyone) - but Sherlock Holmes did not ask for the publicity he received, he did not seek to be famous. The difference to Katharina Blum's case is maybe that because the media attention was positive at first, Sherlock enjoyed it and saw how it helped him get new, interesting clients even though John (and maybe others) did try to warn him that he was getting too much exposure, and that the press would eventually turn against him.