The power that a celebrity has is a strange one. For the most part, we as the consumer let them into our houses and lives for brief times to fill a purpose. Most of that time, it is for entertainment value.
Only in America can we take a New Jerseian that tried to have his wife killed by his mistress and give him 15 minutes of fame. A place where a intern in the white house can go on for years making money telling about the cigar and the dress. Only here, in this country, can we take a spoiled brat of a hotel family and hold her up as a role model.
How much power does a celebrity have really? From recent years, I would say alot. Hell, a famous movie actor is now a governer of one of the most populated states in all the 50. We care when friends of celebrities get phone calls from strangers because another famous person got the Sidekick hacked. Do we know if Britney Spears is going to have a boy, girl, twins, or give birth to the incredible Batboy? No, but we want to.
What is it about the celebrity that draws us into their drama. They take our money, we put them where they are, and then shout " No more pictures" when it is convient to them. Somewhere along the lines, these people that are famous, seem to forget that they are people and that they have stuff to deal with. Was Micheal Jackson guilty? Who knows. But it wouldn't surprise me to know that he thinks that he is invincible from harm because he is a piece of pop culture history. We see every day the sway that movie stars and sports heroes and infamous people have on us. their lives are exotic, unique from ours, and glamourous. But they wouldn't be if it wasn't because the majority of the population put them there. I come back to the article I just wrote about Anne Rice. She ahd the nerve to say that America as a whole is guilty for waht is happening in her home town of New Orleans. She sold about 25 million books, books that for a large part were purchased by us, the consumer. What right does she have to bite the hand that feeds? What made her think that she could make a explosive statement like that and think that there would not be any backlash about it?
I think, honestly, that we give the celebrities too much power.
They are really no different than we are, except that we allow them to provide a service and they get paid very well because of it. Without the people that pay their $8 for a movie or $20 for a DVD, or things like that, they would be where we are. Hell, Tom Cruise could have easily have been the guy that takes your groceries instead of the guy you melt over in his movies. Angelina Jolie could have been that waitress that you didn't tip. For that, we are supposed to allow them to holler and rave when they feel like it? I certainly don't think so. I think that the creature we call celebrity has forgotten it's roots and would do well to remember them.