February 21, 2005

• CELEBRITY VOYEURISM

  
  

   

  
  

  Virtually every week I find myself in an airport somewhere headed someplace for work. I always stop at a magazine stand on the way to my gate so I’ll have something to read other than the dog-eared, Fabio-emblazoned, romance novel that the person who had my seat before me left behind.  As I glance across the covers of the magazines all lined up neatly on their shelves, I can almost immediately get a sense of what the most immediate issue is on the minds of Americans.  This week the issue wasn’t Condoleezza Rice’s first trip abroad as Secretary of State, it wasn’t the refusal of North Korea to enter into talks with the U.S. about their nuclear program, and it wasn’t even the ratification of the election results in Iraq. The burning issue that was on the minds of most Americans seemed to be: Will Brad and Jen get back together?

  
  

   

  
  

  I know that I’ve personally had some sleepless nights over this issue. I mean who wouldn’t root for them?  Have you ever seen a more All-American couple; a couple with better press agents; or a couple with jaw lines so impossibly square that they look like they just came back from posing for a Rodin sculpture?

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

    

  
  

  I’ll admit that I watch “Entertainment Tonight” and “Access Hollywood“ with as much wide-eyed celebrity awe as the next person. I will sit, completely enthralled by back-to-back VH1 “Behind the Music” episodes until I find out the answer to the burning question of why the band members from White Snake just couldn’t get along.  In fact, my biggest claim to fame in life is that I once sat next to Garth Brooks on a flight from Tulsa to Nashville. It does make me wonder, though, why we seem to be so unapologetically voyeuristic when it comes to the drama in the lives of celebrities.

  
  

   

  
  

  I’ve heard it said that magazines like “US”, “Star”, and “National Enquirer” exist only to feed the drama appetite of bored housewives. First of all, I’ve never met a single housewife who would define herself as bored. Secondly, I don’t think it has anything to do with an appetite for drama. As I think about my friends and co-workers, I can point right now to a friend who’s father is hanging on to life by a thread after a heart attack, to another friend who’s husband is headed tomorrow to rehab because of a methamphetamine habit that has forced them into bankruptcy, and to a co-worker who is going through an ugly divorce. I think the vast majority of us have all of the drama in life we want or need.

  
  

   

  
  

  So, why then are we so entranced by the trials and tribulations in the lives of the rich and famous?  I think it’s because in a small way it makes us feel better about ourselves. Whether or not Condoleezza Rice made head way into our diplomatic issues with Syria will probably not have a huge impact on the daily life of most of us, at least not in the short term. But if Brad and Jen, with all of their money, their good looks, and the adoration of millions can’t keep their marriage together, then maybe it’s ok if we have some problems in our own.

  
  

   

  
  

  So even though I’d like to know if the Sunni Muslims will try to thwart attempts to write a new constitution in Iraq, and if the latest tape shown on Alzazeera is really from Bin Laden, what I really want to know is if J-Lo’s marriage is going to last this time.

  • 3:42 pm
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