Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010

Chelsea Clinton's Wedding

Bill and Hillary Clinton set the standard for parenting in the public eye, creating for their daughter a degree of anonymity quite remarkable under the circumstances. And the media appeared to buy the principle that the First Daughter was off-limits: Saturday Night Live was forced to apologize for a Wayne's World reference to the 12-year-old as a "babe in development." When Chelsea Clinton hit the campaign trail for her mother, reporters remarked on how they weren't even familiar with her voice. But the networks took off the shackles for Chelsea's nuptials in Rhinebeck, N.Y., in July, even though her parents had avoided converting the wedding into a political rally. News crews swamped the prim Hudson River town for a week, bringing saturation coverage of the comings and goings of a friends-only guest list. But the coverage revealed that the event was a celebration of love and commitment between two private citizens, of no significance to those outside of their circle of friends and family.