The Clever Badger I'm not dead yet!

Artificial Celebrity

Joshua Zelinsky has a post at Religion, Sets, and Politics wherein he rants about Perez Hilton. 

I'm certainly not going to begrudge Joshua a good rant - we all need those now and again -  and in point of fact the issue of gender roles that he touches on is a significant one to me.  But his post got me thinking about the nature of celebrity, in particular the way that we in the U.S. seem to elevate people to celebrity status for no obviously good reason, and that leads me to a short rant of my own.

Here are some examples that stick out in my mind:

Perez Hilton (since Joshua brought him up):  Famous for blogging about other famous people, and being a snarky jerk.

Jon and Kate Gosselin:  Famous for being fertile.¹

Paris Hilton:  Famous for being born rich.  And being skanky. 

Britney Spears:  Famous for very public meltdowns.  Formerly famous for being a mediocre singer.

The Jonas Brothers:  Famous for no discernable reason.  Acting ability and musical talent don't seem to be involved.

The common thread seems to be media (over)exposure - Paris Hilton gets coverage every time she gets a new cell phone, the Gosselins have photographers following them when they go shopping, and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting stuff branded with Disney's latest Pop star o' the week.  In a nutshell, the publicity machines sell us on the idea that these folks are somehow worthy of our attention and admiration, and often we happily buy into that.

I think we could do a lot better.  I'd like to see more recognition given to people that actually do something to benefit the world, such as:

Bill and Melinda Gates:  Yeah, Windows Vista stinks, but their foundation has given over U.S. $1 billion to worldwide health initiatives, including vaccination programs and AIDS research.

The crew of MythBusters:  The folks there help promote science and reasoning skills and encourage critical thought.  And they blow stuff up.

Drs. Warren Breidenbach and Tsu-Min Tsai and their team:  Researched and performed the first long-term successful hand transplant operation in 1999.

The late Stephen Jay Gould:  In my opinion the most readable and influential biologists of modern times.  His skill at conveying complex and subtle concepts remains unmatched, even 7 years after his passing.

Millard and Linda Fuller:  Founders of Habitat for Humanity.

Doctors Without Borders:  This one goes without saying. 

There's certainly a place in society for entertainment celebrities.  I enjoy movies, music, and sports as much as the next guy.  But I think we'd do well to consider where our priorities lie.

CB
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¹One can't help but wonder how much the pressure of being in the spotlight contributed to their recently announced separation and divorce filing.  One also must hope that the spotlight can be shut off while they work through a difficult time in their lives, particularly for the sake of the kids.

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