Page Six, Paparazzi, Lions, Tigers, Bears...oh my!

Poor Brittney. Poor Lindsay Lohan. Poor Mary Kate. Poor Halle Berry. Poor Beyonce & Jay-Z. My heart goes out to celebrities these days. As the WWW has evolved and every source of information is only a click & download away, it seems that the wall of privacy for the rich & famous is only made out of plastic Lego blocks!
I'd left my television on the other morning, as I performed my daily morning rituals. As I carried forth in the usual routine I watched in disbelief as one of those morning shows showed a video feed at Brittney's house. The volume was down, and I immediately assumed it was her death or better yet, I had in my recent news-boycott missed the death of a pop culture legend? Only to now witness a late night funeral. Damn, even in her death she's still on the paparazzi hot list! But, it wasn't either. I turned the volume up and learned that Brittney's mental state was failing. The paramedics were dispatched and Brittney would be "rushed" to the hospital. "Rushed"? The media had formed a barricade around the Brittney camp, poor ambulance driver! I shook my head then, and I've been shaking it ever since. It just appalls me that our media has no regard for a human being. Never mind the fact that she's a celebrity, with a life and a family (no matter how dysfunctional). All I can think of is Princess Dianna and how her fate was determined by paparazzi....and, for what? A celebrity doing something normal, like driving or going somewhere other than a red carpet event? NEWSFLASH: Lindsay Lohan was seen shopping in Food Lion!
It has gone too far. It has become an obsession and I think we, our society, has fostered it. We continue to buy into the market of tabloid news. There are some things that are interesting and news worthy. But photographers playing peeping-toms and catching shots of Beyonce & Jay-Z snuggled on a beach in St. Croix, is just purely OCD!
I know what you're saying, well...it's the life they chose. But come on, that's not even fair. Theses people were lucky, fortunate, talented, blessed and given an opportunity that I'm sure none of us, if afforded would never pass up. But do we exchange their entire soul for barricades, a paparazzi entourage, high-pursuit photographers...how would you feel if every time you took a bite of anything at your favorite restaurant or walked into a department store, a sea of photographers are a head turn away? Should we punish them for having two commas and more zeros in their bank account? The big screen has faltered the reality of the situation. We think that because their job title allows us to see them behind the eyes of a camera on the big screen or on our television, that it creates this surrealistic view of the celebrity. It's a make believe world where they work. Drawn entirely from imagination and a great ability to pretend. They're not real, or they're not like "us"...so whenever they're out doing something deemed "normal", we are immediately drawn to view them in what's real to us. Wow, she puts gas in her car, we may say unconsciously as we turn the page and see a celebrity pumping gas at WaWa.
I guess it's just the times we live in, but I think we've pulled the curtain a little too far back. If they're posing for the camera, that's different. And hey, if what they do seems inappropriate, think about your Uncle Bo-Bo that does everything inappropriate! We've all known an alcoholic or two, a drug addict, a crazy mother or father....celebrities are no different from you and I. Their bank account, maybe...but they feel and want the same things out of life that we want! Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Real Talk,
K