Everybody is crazy about Desy Ratnasari

Everybody is crazy about Desy Ratnasari

JAKARTA (JP): It must be the divorce of the year. As starlet
Desy Ratnasari filed the petition to end her 13 month marriage
with engineer Trenadi Pramudya, the proceeding was featured in
most local media.

Everything printed about Desy, one of the most popular
actresses in the country, is selling like hot cakes and the print
media is vying for the most complete and exclusive story. Aksi, a
tabloid linked to the Pos Kota group owned by former information
minister Harmoko, attracted readers with its screaming headline:
Hore... Desy Jadi Janda (Hurray... Desy Becomes a Divorcee).
Other media reported the 26-year-old celebrity would soon become
janda emas, the golden divorcee or even janda millennium,
divorcee of the millennium.

Forget about journalistic ethics. There is no compassion. Desy
is no more than a commodity to be exploited. She is young, rich,
pretty and will soon be available. In a TV gossip show, she
talked about her plan to divorce with tears in her eyes. And
people want to know more, they want to know every detail about
her. "I am just curious," a woman said with C&R (Check and
Rechek) tabloid in her hand, admitting that she did not pity
Desy.

She has a reason to be curious. In the divorce suit, Desy said
that they were not getting along well. "It might be a cliche, but
that's it," her lawyer, Rohmat Haryadi, said. He denied that
there was another man or another woman involved.

The story was mentioned not only in yellow newspapers, gossip
tabloids or women's magazines, Gatra news weekly raised the issue
in its cover story on March 25, which prompting dozens of readers
to lodge their complaints.

A regular reader of Femina women's weekly, upon learning that
the magazine would run a story on Desy in the next edition,
decided that she would not buy it.

Apparently, many people are fed up with the extensive coverage
of Desy. But many others are interested.

The sales of the 32-page Citra tabloid, with a steady
circulation of over 200,000, increased by 26,000 copies when it
ran the story in six pages.

"Marriage, divorce, scandal or death of a popular artist is
always a hot topic," said H. Murtomo, head of the circulation
department. He cited the tragedy of the young singer, Nike
Ardilla from Bandung, who died in a road mishap a few years ago.

Desy does not seem to be bothered with her rocky marriage and
the huge exposure. She appeared live on RCTI's Academy Award show
on Wednesday, the day after the first hearing of her divorce
suit.

Desy built her career as a model after she won a cover girl
contest at the age of 14. Since then she has enjoyed the fame.
She has won several awards for her acting talents and her
melancholic album Tenda Biru (Blue Tent) sold over 800,000
copies. As one of the highest paid actresses, she reportedly
received between Rp 10 million and Rp 15 million for a TV
sinetron (drama series) last year. It is estimated that she
earned no less than Rp 150 million a year appearing in
commercials.

Before her marriage with Pramudya, there were reports that
Abdul Latief, a 57-year-old divorcee who was then the minister of
manpower, had tried to win her hand. He denied the reports and
Desy said that while she was close to Latief, there had been no
affairs between them.

Desy said that her marriage had been difficult since last
September. In November, Pram - as her estranged husband is called
- left Desy's house in Bintaro housing complex, Tangerang, south
of Jakarta. It was revealed that prior to the marriage, Pram had
to sign an agreement about the split of their properties, meaning
that he would not have rights to Desy's wealth.

On Tuesday, when the court in Sukabumi, 80 kilometers south of
here, opened the hearing, hundreds of journalists flocked the
court room.

"Team for the Coverage of Desy's Divorce" was written on a
piece of paper posted on a car. Later in the day, all private
television stations broadcast it as a hot item.

As Pram did not really want a divorce, he asked the court to
give him more time to think about it. The hearing was adjourned
for two weeks.

The case is not over. But even if the court had rendered a
decision, Desy's fairy tale would continue. As long as she
remains in the media spotlight, people will be curious to know
everything about her.

Socio-psychologist Darmanto Jatman from the University of
Diponegoro in Semarang noted that the society is crazy about Desy
because of the media.

Under the Soeharto regime, the media - which was heavily
controlled by the government - became the only source of
information for the people. This explains why the media plays
such a big role in society, according to Darmanto.

"What is considered important by the media becomes important
for the people. Just like advertisement creates desire in people
for things they do not really need. The media creates curiosity.
This is called capitalism in information," he said. (sim)