CELEBRITY SCALES: Farrah Fawcett’s Private Reality: Star-Studded Legal Commentary for the Celebrity Obsessed

NBC aired the heart-wrenching documentary “Farrah’s Story” to nine million viewers bringing sharp public focus to Farah Fawcett’s private and courageous struggle against terminal cancer.  This moving documentary, filmed in collaboration with and featuring Fawcett’s longtime companion Ryan O’Neal and best friend Alana Stewart, serves as both a brutally honest and deeply touching account of the severe impact that this deadly disease has on its victims and their loved ones.  Fawcett, through control of the reality medium, bravely narrates a story demonstrating her hope, personal introspection, intense emotion and tenacity.  The “Charlie’s Angel” star has successfully used her international fame and this poignant film to raise global awareness of the disease, the urgent need for alternative approaches to treatment and interestingly, salient legal and ethical issues concerning patients’ privacy rights.  Fawcett has become her own personal messenger.

A shocking segment of the documentary depicts Fawcett discovering that information contained in her confidential medical records had been leaked and sold to the National Enquirer by UCLA Medical Center employee Lawanda Jackson.  The leak led to the National Enquirer printing the headline “Farrah’s Cancer is Back!” Authorities claimed that Jackson had also improperly accessed the medical records of other celebrities, including Britney Spears and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wife Maria Shriver.  Jackson , 50, pleaded guilty to violating federal medical privacy laws for commercial purposes in December but died of breast cancer in March prior to being sentenced.  This breach of Fawcett’s privacy led to an onslaught of tabloid and paparazzi attention on the star during a particularly vulnerable period of her illness.  The coverage was so intense that she referred to the National Enquirer as being “as invasive and malignant as cancer.”  As a consequence of this experience, Fawcett began aggressively advocating for greater legal protection of patients’ privacy rights.  Her strident advocacy efforts have resulted in tremendous media and political attention being brought to an important issue impacting not only celebrities but also the general public.

Is your privacy at risk?  Medical records can contain highly personal information about an individual including social security numbers, dates of birth, insurance records and diagnoses.  Compromising such records creates the potential for identity theft and other fraudulent activities.  Therefore, it is essential that strong legal mechanisms and institutional policies be set in place to prevent violations of patient privacy.  Political support of patient privacy initiatives has been quite strong.  In response to the public outcry that has been generated greatly in part by Fawcett, California passed legislation in early 2009 permitting the state to fine health care providers for breaches of a patient’s medical records.  Governor Schwarzenegger has spoken out publicly on this issue, warning of the legal ramifications that will result from the violation of medical privacy by health care institutions and their employees.  Additionally, a provision of President Obama’s stimulus plan is geared toward better securing the privacy of patient medical records.

While Obama supports greater patient privacy, his ambitious goal to digitize all medial records raises serious questions concerning how sensitive patient information will be protected as it is moved onto electronic systems.  Is it possible that important patient medical data could be lost during the transition from paper to digital?  Who will be viewing the information contained in these records as they become digitized and how can we ensure that the information will be protected in the process?  Ultimately, how can we balance the multiple benefits of electronic medical records with the multiple risks that such modernization can pose to personal privacy and perhaps even to public health?

Fawcett, a 70’s sex symbol whose iconic swimsuit poster helped shoot her to international stardom, has boldly altered her persona and message to raise international awareness of cancer and the timely issue of patient privacy rights.  She has forcefully pushed open the doors of dialogue.  The public’s acceptance, for the most part, of Fawcett’s current image and circumstances illustrates the positive transformative power that new forms of “reality” media can have in a society inundated by the steady stream of YouTube and TMZ.  It is also reflective of the perceptual changes that the media consuming public has developed of celebrities and celebrity culture.   The public is now just as much enamored by the real person behind the image and all of their inner triumphs and tragedies as it is with traditional Hollywood iconography and glamour.  Real human events and emotion have always existed within the celluloid machine.  Perhaps now we are just more comfortable facing their elements of truth and “reality.”

Matt Semino is a New York attorney and legal commentator.  He is a graduate of Columbia Law School, Cornell University and is a Fulbright Scholar.

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Contact Matt Semino at Matt@MattSemino.com