Celebrity Worship - Are You Part of This Madness?

Celebrity worship is not a new phenomenon, but it has soared to new heights and become its own culture. Hollywood-style entertainment started out as a nice diversion for the normal person who wanted to relax and see a movie on the weekend. Now you can't turn on the TV or walk past a newsstand without being assaulted by the media darlings.

Exactly what constitutes a celebrity these days? Surprisingly, very little. There is no longer a prerequisite for having talent or making a difference in society. I admire those who do have these qualifications, but really, all it takes now is to be found charming on a reality show or to have an extravagant lifestyle where you are on exhibit for your abilities to party with the A List. No need to worry about a few drugs or a bit of jail time - all that can be fixed with a well-paid publicist and the fans will continue to hunger for what happens next. What kind of credentials are these??

We need to take a good, reflective look at ourselves to get to the bottom of this phenomenon. Celebrities exist because we make them who they are. If we quit paying attention right now, eventually they would cease to exist. If we pay no mind to their drug problems or buy their products, we can have an effect on this epidemic of celebrity poisoning. Who are these people anyway? We don't really know them. All we know is how they are presented by the media. We watch them rise and then we watch them fall. We watch them spend their money and we watch them go through rehab like it's nothing but a revolving door. Is that what you want your children and grandchildren to emulate? That's not what I want.

What I want is for ten of these overexposed creatures to disappear.

10. Brittany Spears This girl makes me glad I was never a show biz mom who trotted out her kid for fame and glory. I understand that she had talent but Brit is a walking, talking advertisement of how that can go wrong. Now she's got kids of her own to think about. BS needs to leave the party circuit and go raise her kids in some kind of normal atmosphere. I don't care that she grew up too fast or in the public eye - we all end up having obligations and she needs to get mature and give her kids a chance.

9. Paris Hilton Here's a girl with more opportunity than 99% of people in the world. What does she do with that? She drops out of school and gets a GED. Then she parlays that into a TV contract for a frivolous show that nets her even more money and convinces her that she's "hot". Wow, I'm impressed. I'm even more impressed that she did jail time and still can't make a difference in society with the resources she has. What a waste.

8. Rosie O'Donnell Rosie did seem to work her way up. She was great in a League of Their Own. You know why? Because she was part of a cast and not starring on her own. As a team member on The View, she flipped her hair over her head and did a hilarious impression of Donald Trump. She rightly called him on his pompous "permission" to let Tara Connor keep her Miss USA title after violating her contract. Brava to Rosie for pointing out that The Donald is not a "moral compass" by the example he sets in his personal life. Had Rosie shut up at that point, Donald would have hung himself in the media and she would have been vindicated. But R's big mouth just wouldn't quit. She kept it up until even Donald looked virtuous by comparison and Barbara had to let her go.

7. Michael Jackson This has to be the scariest man alive. He's like a vampire that can't be killed. Scarier still is that he has named each of his three children after himself. He had enormous talent that has been totally overshadowed by his outrageous behavior; further proof that talent is not the measure of a celebrity. I do wonder what Michael would have looked like if he had only gotten his nose fixed once. I bet he would have been attractive and that he would still be making great music. I guess we will never know.

6. Tom Cruise Geez, this was a charming guy. Top Gun and Rain Man were fabulous flicks. Tom then proved he was more than a pretty face in Born on the Fourth of July. What a career he was having until he started to believe his own press. Even the Mission Impossible remakes were wondrous accomplishments. But Tom chose to self-destruct in real life. His fairy tale wedding to Katie Holmes - who had previously been his "pregnant fiance" - was an overblown media spectacle. Such outrageous extravagance boggles the mind.

5. Star Jones Here is an example of what a Law Degree cannot do for you. You'd think if you worked that hard for a prestigious degree, you'd be doing some sort of legitimate work. Hmmm. Star came up through the ranks of Court TV and landed on The View. From there it was a short journey to subsidizing her wedding for advertising partnerships. Sleazy stuff, to be sure. And after all those "aren't I glad to be the size I am" endorsements, Star shows up 100+ pounds lighter with only vague explanations for how it happened. "Diet and Exercise," Star says. And two years later she's in the news again with her "revealing interview" about having weight loss surgery. Well, who didn't guess that. There's nothing wrong with weight loss surgery, but there is something seriously wrong with a liar and manipulator like Star.

4. Heather Mills uh oh. Hard to be nasty to a girl who has been called a one-legged sympathy vote. Her marriage to Sir Paul didn't last and it appears there was true acrimony between Heather and Paul's daughters. Now Heather is going the extra mile to prove all manner of distasteful allegations. We cannot possibly know the real story but even Barbara Walters, who never publicly criticizes anyone, says that Heather was uncommonly difficult to deal with. This ugliness needs to stay private.

3. Lindsey Lohan Have you ever seen a more pathetic specimen of privileged life at age 21?? You really must read the news for details as I cannot bear to repeat them here. Lindsey, honey, listen to me. If you have any money left (and you must since you still garner so much attention) take it and buy a dairy farm in the Midwest. The responsibility of milking the cows every morning and taking care of other daily chores should do you a lot of good. You could even make charitable donations to the Agricultural Community like this one and actually make a difference. Can you imagine being interested in something besides yourself? Take it from me - it's a whole new world and it will change your life.

2. Kevin Federline I do not follow this guy, but since he is the other half of such a major media disaster, I had to include him on this list. Presumably, he was a "backup dancer" who came into contact and subsequent marriage with Brittany Spears. That was after leaving his girlfriend Shar, who had borne him a daughter and was pregnant with their son at the time of the breakup. Now he has four children to support and provide an example for. What example will that be?

1. The Tabloid Entertainment Media All of the above celebrities are channeled through and exploited by this omnipotent industry. The rest of us contribute to it in some way. We buy the magazines, we watch the programs and in doing so we feed the frenzy. According to this Forbes article, even the picture chosen for the magazine cover has a major impact on sales and readership. It's hard to imagine all the ways both celebrities and the public are manipulated by this pop-culture Goliath.

There's too much fame and money going on here for any of this to really disappear - or even get toned down. I've perpetuated it again just by writing this article and mentioning the names I'd like to see go away. But I do resolve to be more careful about supporting celebrity worship unwittingly. I don't need to watch celebrity roundup shows to amuse myself. I won't purchase the tabloids and slick journals full of glossy photos of people whose claim to fame is a movie role or inclusion on the best party list. I feel sorry for the people on my list because surely their dream of stardom has become a double edged sword. They lose their privacy and become a personal industry with an obligation to support an entourage. Their wealth and glamor opens them up to superficial relationships and hangers-on that they surely can't trust. It must be a very isolating lifestyle in many respects. That seems obvious by the way they use their status to stay constantly in the news.

Celebrity worship is a fantasy. It doesn't serve anyone but the moneymakers. It is a destructive influence on both young people who are still impressionable and those in the general population who are looking for something to hang on to in life. The celebrity lifestyle is misleading and unrealistic and leads to a lot of unhappy endings. Don't get caught up in it. Turn your focus to real entertainment, real people, real heroes, real life. Help stop the madness.