Enough Already

Last night while flipping through the channels, we came upon one of the many entertainment magazine shows. There was a clip about one of the dozen or so end of/beginning of year award ceremonies for actors and films. I hadn't heard of this one before and I wondered to myself, do we really need all of these?

The Oscars, the first and most glamorous of the film awards, is fine. Why must we have all these others? What exactly are we honoring here? Art? Usually not. Most winners are big studio, big budget, big name films. They are pop music, not cutting edge.

In addition, do these celebrities really need another award ceremony to thank their agent and their hair dresser?

I was reflecting on the Hollywood clique and their lifestyle. They make millions to say a few lines, maybe cry, in front of a camera which affords them ample opportunity to keep trying until they get it right (unlike those on stage who must perform their lines in front of an audience of several hundred every night). They are pampered by assistants hired by others.

They live in a world free from real responsibility (do you really think if they had any responsibility the divorce rate among these people would be so high?). Their biggest concern is the papparazzi, which is despised until they have moved on to the next celebrity. And when the celebrity has moved out of the spotlight long enough (three weeks), articles are sent to the tabloids and magazines heralding a marvelous comeback that is about to happen.

Celebrity relations with drugs and alcohol are also different. If Joe or Jane Anyone got drunk and coked up on a Tuesday night, had their exposed crotch photographed a mere months after giving birth to a second child, and made a horrific scene, Joe or Jane would be scorned, likely fired, and would risk losing everything. For the same offense, the celeb gets a six-week vacation at a spa and returns with a PR campaign about how much rehab meant to them.

What frustrates me about celebrities, their lifestyles and their consistent need to pat themselves on the back through all these award shows isn't that they can do it and I can't. I can barely sit through two minutes of the Oscars, or anything else of that nature. No, what frustrates me is how many of us -- the real people -- actually care about these celebrities.

Last week a drug addict died in a hotel room. Her son overdosed a few months earlier. She recently had a daughter, but had no idea who the father was. If she was from the South Bronx, or Compton, or Bridgeport, none of us would even know she died. Nor would we care. But because she looked a little like Marilyn Monroe, had a spread in Playboy and had a pretty good publicist, her death has supplanted even the war in the news.

Anna Nicole Smith is not unlike many of the celebrities we read about in these stargazing magazines. They live in the spotlight. They have the fame, the fortune and the glamour. What they lack, and what I and many like me have, is fulfillment.