I’m just curious—what is with the love affair America has with celebrities?
Celebrities are just people doing a job, which happens to be entertainment. They entertain us. They make us laugh. They make us cry. They make us feel. All by pretending to be something they aren’t or someone they aren’t. Or by singing a song.
They are in front of us. Constantly. Very seldom—probably never—do I see a news program without a story about a celebrity. We see their faces on clothes, bags, magazines, social media, everywhere. We hear about them in conversations and hold conversations about them. And we don’t even know them. It seems that our lives are consumed by unreal characters played by people we don’t even know.
We hear about the personal lives of these celebrities continually. Who is flirting with whom? Who is dating whom? Who is getting a divorce and why? Who gets the kids? Who cares? Obviously, a lot of people do. Many revel in keeping up with the activities of their favorite entertainer and cheer for them as they award each other accolades and pat each other on the back for a job well done.
People have always wanted—have needed—to be entertained. Jesters, games, competitions, dances, books and later movies have entertained us for centuries. After a day or week of hard work or the stresses of life, we like to go to a movie. Perhaps watching the stories on screen allows us to forget our own lives for a moment as we spend our emotions on stories that are not our own.
Still, I can’t help but wonder why we put them up on a pedestal, why we believe them when they offer their less than expert opinions about things that concern us, and why we care so much about their lavish lifestyles paid for by our love for entertainment, lifestyles that most of us will never attain, no matter how hard we work at our jobs that are just as important as their jobs.
I’m just curious.