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Celebrities are people too, or so we've been told. Whether or not it's true, Americans love to think of them as something more than just people. We are fascinated by them. Fascinated by the choices they make, the company they keep and whether or not they succeed or fail. We watch them on the way up and watch them even more closely on the way down. We scrutinize them in every way, mindful of the mistakes they make even more than we are of the successes they create.
So why are we are so fascinated by celebrity culture? Certainly part of it is the media, which reports on their actions as though the world's fate depended on it. But on the other end of the stick, isn't it us who decides that People magazine sells more copies than Time or that Inside Edition gets better ratings than the local news?
Yes, we are indeed the ones responsible, and no one seems willing to apologize for it. Why should we? Celebrities, because of their status, have the ability to do, see and experience things we simply can't. How many posh beachfront homes in Malibu do you own? Same here. How many starlets or Hollywood hunks have you taken out for a night on the town? Ditto on this end.
But there's more to it than just the money, the cars, the mansions and the parties. Part of it is that we do want to believe they are just like we are. We're looking for kinks in the publicist armor. When we find it, we generally sympathize. Take Jennifer Aniston's split with Brad Pitt, for example. How many of you sympathized with TV's “Rachel” and bought into the theory that Angelina Jolie was a home wrecker? Now how many of you who answered affirmatively would care as much if it happened to your next door neighbor?
The reason for that is simple. We watch them. We grow up with them. We invite them into our homes every night and more often than not, they never fail to entertain. It's natural for us to care about these people we've never met, because in a way, we have met, and through their acting, songwriting or performing, we feel we know them well.