A follow-up to my last post. Just so you know that there is a heart somewhere in my angry little chest, let's talk about celebrity in a more positive light. I've been thinking all week on my disdain and disgust over the spectacle that followed the untimely death of Ms. Smith. I've divided my extreme reaction to a few basic causes.
Cause #1 - I don't even follow this stuff and I saw this woman dying young and in despair years ago. She was a prescription drug addict, objectified by an entire nation, and suffered the worst loss imaginable - the death of a child. How was it that America couldn't take its collective eyes off her when many of us didn't have the stomach to watch?
Cause #2 - I haven't watched TV in months so I had unreasonably high expectations of what I might find there. Hopes which were, of course, dashed miserably.
Cause #3 -I wasn't a fan of Anna Nicole. If I had been a fan, well then...
Unless afflicted with terminal narcissism, or chronic apathy, we are all a fan of someone. My four year old is a fan of Spider Man. My mama is a fan of some former presidents of the Southern liberal persuasion. I am a fan of... well, I'll come back to that. But we all have our people for whom we are willing to wait in lines for tickets, we'll drive hours to see, or we'll act like 1960's teenagers cheering the British Invasion if we encounter them.
So let me just say that I would not have been nearly so harsh if Fox News and friends had run marathon coverage of the following events.
* Dave Grohl's baby daughter's first steps.
* A six hour Billy Collins documentary including lectures, interviews, and a call-in show
* Clive Owen reading the ingredient list of Frosted Wheat
*Anything with the AbFab girls
I also would have been more interested if Anna Nicole had been alive and watching all this somewhere. I'm sure she would have had some oddly slurred malapropism laced commentary. God rest her poor soul.
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