Anna Nicole Smith and the Sad State of American Pop Culture

What a sad state of affairs it is when people in our society are so caught up with a sub-celebrity and the paternity of her baby that it makes headline news on CNN. There are certain things that are newsworthy yes, and Anna Nicole Smith is definitely one subject that is. But to put her and her story on a pedestal as the media and her fans have been doing for the past few months since her death is making a universe out of a molehill.

It all stems from the O.J. Simpson trial. This is the time that celebrities stopped being celebrities and became news stories. When Marilyn Monroe died, the country mourned the loss of a great actress, an American icon and a strong woman figure to look up to at the time of her death. I bring up Marilyn Monroe because strangely enough, some of her fans and even the news stations have been comparing Smith to her. Not her death, but her life. This is what I don't understand.

Monroe did more in her career than any other female actress at the time of her death besides possibly Lucille Ball and some other famous female producers. She was a symbol of courage and beauty and class, before all of her past came around about drug use and dealings with the president. She was not simple an A-list actress, she was a moviestar in the greatest sense of the phrase. She was, in short, respected by the Hollywood community as well as housewives and moviegoers alike. I cannot say the same for Anna Nicole Smith.

This is why it puzzles me that when she died initially people began calling her death and life similar to Monroe's and comparing the two women. I even read in many different places as well as on the news that she was like America's new royalty. Funny I didn't hear that before her death. The only royal like celebrities we've had in our country are people like the Kennedys or Monroe herself, even Elizabeth Taylor.

To compare Anna Nicole's work as a model, rise to fame as a rich man's wife and her few years as a socialite to royalty is near an abomination. Now there is no denial that she was a fascinating creature as most reality TV stars are. She was hip, she was in. people liked her because she was a sad woman who was exciting to watch because of her beauty, unpredictability and the fact that most reality TV stars are fun to watch because you never know what will happen with them. She could have gone on a drug binge (which it has recently been found that Smith overdosed on her prescription drugs which caused her death) or she could have gotten in trouble with the law.

These people like Flava Flav, Smith, or any other crazy celebrity on a show are there for entertainment not because we respect their work as an artist anymore or because they have the class to be considered royalty. The fun is in watching semi-crazy people who are well-known mess up, curse and get arrested. This has become America's new pastime - watching the misery of others come to life on screen.
And today, watching all the craziness is better for most Americans that worrying about the war, the environment, the economy, education or anything else that might better us as a people if we pulled together and tried to fix things. It doesn't bother me that people want to watch the craziness that goes on surrounding Anna Nicole Smith. What bothers me is that the media hypes up every single thing a celebrity does these days, making it more newsworthy than our soldiers fighting in Iraq or more important than health care.

It used to be that world events meant something to the American public. But now it seems that we only care about Brandy's arrest or Anna Nicole's death. Who cares if there is a genocide going on halfway across the world? "I Love New York" is on.

Watch your celebrities. I'm not saying I don't. But what I am saying is that pretending that such a person like Anna Nicole Smith is an American icon makes us look the fool and it spits on the grave of Marilyn Monroe, a true icon. Whether people loved her not, she will go down in American history as one of its greatest figures. And Smith will soon be among the other poor sad young women who suffered an overdose and left behind an even sadder young child being pulled back and forth by her family.