Our Fascination With Celebrities

Like our fascination in watching an ant (or the entire anthill for that matter) squirm when we angle the magnifying glass just so at the sun, so too goes our fascination with celebrity. As the latest installment of American Idol shows, the average man just wants to be acknowledged and what better way than becoming a 'star'. A lot of us dream of it, very few of us attain it and for those lucky (or unlucky depending on your perspective) to be under the magnifying glass of celebrity the rewards seem to be great.

Not having ever been a celebrity myself, although I am somewhat of a 'big cheese' in my home town (smugly buffs nails on shirt), I must say that being a celebrity doesn't seem all bad. I would take the money and the gift bags and the free things and umm did I say money? ... Yeah, I would greatly enjoy the perks of 'celebrityhood' (or is it celebritydom?) any day but how many of us could live up to that scrutiny?

To have your every move recorded, your relationships scrutinized, your smallest slip-up or shortcoming discussed by millions (for those of us with large families we already get a taste of this ... Thanks Mom!). Now I know some of you are thinking the money and perks would balance this out but think about the freedom of anonymity you have now, you can pick your nose in public if you want to, you may get a few stares but 'the event' will not be recorded and picked over (pun intended, Ha!) for time immemorial.

But why are we so fascinated? Does our fascination help us to feel better about ourselves? Or is it sparked by envy? For whatever reasons celebrity news and gossip is big business and with the latest news being available at our fingertips everyone and their grandmothers has a blog about one celebrity or other. Many of us readily denounce gossiping in our daily lives yet feed our guilty pleasure by logging on to the latest 'most hated celebrity' blogs to see the latest snide comments about this or that person.

Our celebrities have become like that poor fried ant. We feel superior as we sit at our desks and look with pity or scorn at the latest young celebrity to end up in jail or forget their panties or fall flat on their face drunk. But alas fame and celebrity are synonymous and as Newton said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so too the money and perks cause curiosity and the paparazzi. Now ... since it's been more than an hour since I checked that blog, I'm now off to see what Britney is up to.

News entry number 21 added on Feb 9, 2008 in the Movies category.