I say yes, there are some things that should remain private even for celebrities, but the tape about what she wants at her funeral was already public and it had been made for public consumption if I am not mistaken.
Whether something should remain private is different to me than exercising some control to give celebrities space during a difficult time out of respect and even more simply the golden rule. Sometimes when they do the tributes to actors immediately after they die I feel badly for the family left behind you might feel bombarded when they need some time to digest everything that happened.
It’s more than just in death, I think the media never should have run with the Monica Lewinsky story, I don’t like when children of celebrities are shown in a bad light, all sorts of things.
It seemed to me the media held back on speculation about Joan while she was in the hospital. I don’t follow the news much though. My immediate thought when I first heard she had a procedure and wound up in a coma was “they killed her.” That was the same reaction I had a few months ago when a cousin of mine had surgery and wound up dead within 48 hours, and indeed we believe the doctor made a major screw up.
My assumption when they said Joan was being kept comfortable was they were giving her pain meds and letting her starve death. I didn’t see anything like that on the news though. I didn’t see anyone talking about the possibilities of what might really be happening. So, I think the media did show some control and allowed Melissa’s statements to be the end all to speculation while her mother was in her final days.