Rant on Celebrity

[bjarvis]

I just don't understand the mournful hand-wringing over the recent death of Heath Ledger. More fundamentally, I don't get the whole cult of celebrity thing.

Why is Ledger's death so newsworthy? Because he was wealthy, good-looking and well-known because of his career? Is that all? I'm at a loss to figure out what else it might be. Thousands of other people make their contributions to the world and pass away quietly and with dignity but because they aren't millionaires or graced the big screen, they die anonymously and uncelebrated.

People are dying here & abroad who have contributed more to the world than the likes of, say, Anna Nicole Smith but get not one inch of newsprint. People are dying of preventable diseases, of natural calamities, of accident & misadventure but are all overlooked because of the overdose of an actor.

I'm sorry for his family but I think there are better uses for our time and energy than public displays of angst over his passing. His death is sad and unfortunate but it is not front-page news.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Others have said it much better than I but what I can say is that I don't have the same reaction others have had, largely in part because Heath is not my type physically even though I did see him play a GAY man in a movie.

Yes, he was 28, but e celeb and a famous one at that, so what? In the end, he's just as human as you and I and it does us no good to elevate him to a plane higher than ourselves so on that front, I don't have any empathy, but as a simple human being, I can empathize as he's now another person who's gone at a very, young age and has not had the chance to mature and grow into middle age etc like so many of us.