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What's Behind Our Obsession With Celebrity?
Newhouse News ^ | 2/28/2006 | Michele M. Melendez & Dru Sefton

Posted on 02/28/2006 3:32:36 PM PST by Incorrigible

Tiger Woods signs autographs before the start of the 2005 PGA Championship last August. (Photo by John O'Boyle)

What's Behind Our Obsession With Celebrity?

BY MICHELE M. MELENDEZ And DRU SEFTON

 

Who cares about "Brangelina," the reportedly salacious relationship of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? And who needs to know about Lindsay Lohan's weight fluctuations or Michael Jackson's facial transformations?

A lot of you do.

Celebrity news blazes from television shows, slick weekly magazines and up-to-the-minute blogs. Star-laden galas -- including Sunday's Academy Awards -- fuel the hype with fashion parades and backstage catfights.

"I think almost everyone dreams of having fabulous lives with millions of dollars of disposable cash," said Jen Prall, 24, of York, Pa., who subscribes to People magazine and frequents celebrity-themed blogs. "So it's a way of living vicariously through them."

     
 
Actress Lindsay Lohan, a favorite of the celebrity gossip magazines, stops to sign an autograph in Manhattan after leaving a fall fashion show in early February. What's behind Americans' fascination with celebrities? (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos)
 
     

That appetite has surged, media analysts say.

"Celebrity gossip has become like the blob in that (1958) Steve McQueen movie: It spreads everywhere it can," said Matthew Felling, media director of the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs, a research group. "`Entertainment Tonight' begat `Access Hollywood.' TV people saw these two shows could succeed and created an entire channel for it," E! Entertainment Television.

Hall's Reports of Stamford, Conn., which tracks magazine content, counts more pages devoted in recent years to entertainment and celebrity news, in titles as various as Us Weekly and National Geographic.

Sandy Santora, Hall's senior vice president/research director, also notes a growing selection of magazines dedicated to celebrity coverage. Readers "can't get enough of it," she said.

It's a form of escapism, explains Boulder, Colo., psychiatrist Doreen Orion. And that's OK, she adds, as long as the admirers have enough to enjoy in their own lives.

Plus, Orion says, some feel it's just fun to snicker about the famous.

Dennis Lewis, 49, of Orange Park, Fla., says he relishes reading about the misfortunes of celebrities who appear to be "full of themselves."

It's human nature, says Frank McAndrew, psychology professor at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.

"For most of our history, humans lived in relatively small groups," McAndrew said. Those who used their social skills to gather information -- whether to recruit allies or attract a mate -- succeeded in the community. Often, uncovering secrets proved useful.

In today's global neighborhood, celebrities are targets.

"We're kind of programmed to want dirt on other people," McAndrew said. "We can use it to our advantage," even if it's to assure ourselves about how well-adjusted our lives are by comparison.

Sue Erikson Bloland, a psychotherapist in New York, sees an underlying social shift.

"We live in a culture in which we are very much in transition," she said. "Traditional values, traditional beliefs, traditional institutions have weakened. We really don't know what to believe in."

Why not celebrities?

Meanwhile, psychologists say, learning so much about the famous can lead to a genuine concern for them, which may in turn feed a desire to know more.

Grace Dawson, 23, of Stanchfield, Minn., takes an interest in the divorce proceedings of singers Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, who allowed cameras in their California home for their MTV reality show, "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica."

"We feel like this is our relationship too, because we saw so much of it," Dawson said.

Lynn McCutcheon, co-author of "Celebrity Worshippers: Inside the Minds of Stargazers" and assistant professor of psychology at DeVry University in Orlando, Fla., has examined fans of the famous. Various studies, he says, have found that people who score high for celebrity worship tend not to be as smart as those who score lower.

"A lot of them -- well, I'll use a phrase my younger daughter used when talking about this," he said. "`Dad, a lot of those people need to get a life.' That's a bit of an overgeneralization, but true."

Ouch. Harsh words, but a common view.

"I really wonder who is that pressed for that information" about celebrities, said Cathy Cruz, 25, of East Prospect, Pa. She says she's too occupied with her own business to be concerned about people she doesn't know and likely never will meet.

But even those who don't care are bombarded.

"The tabloids line the grocery store checkout aisles; most news outlets (broadcast) entertainment news ... and even Internet pop-ups and ads often reference celebrity gossip," said John McGrath, 28, of Boston. "It's pretty much impossible to get away."

Psychologists theorize that people unmoved by celebrities' lives simply are too busy or focus their gossiping energy elsewhere.

Charles Cook Jr., 22, of Mobile, Ala., just feels sorry for the stars:

"It seems like you lose your privacy, and you can't go a day without someone waiting for you to make a very human mistake."

Feb. 28, 2006
 (Michele M. Melendez can be contacted at michele.melendez@newhouse.com; Dru Sefton can be contacted at dru.sefton@newhouse.com)

Not for commercial use.  For educational and discussion purposes only.

 


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: pathetic
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To: theFIRMbss
look at all the threads on freerepublic where they post the photos of celebrity women

Yea, I know.......

21 posted on 02/28/2006 5:13:52 PM PST by mc5cents
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To: higgmeister
I don't even need to know who Lindsay Lohan is.

I know who she is because my daughter is 12, but until this article complaining about focus on celebrities I didn't know there was some comments about her weight.

Personally, I turn the channel every time there is a story about celebrities...but eventually just ended up turning it off because that's about all the media tries to shove down our throats.

22 posted on 02/28/2006 5:49:10 PM PST by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: Incorrigible

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COWWHA.html


23 posted on 02/28/2006 5:51:22 PM PST by durasell (!)
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To: highlander_UW

What does she have to do with your 12 year old daughter?


24 posted on 02/28/2006 6:42:55 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken.)
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To: higgmeister
What does she have to do with your 12 year old daughter?

She makes movies and music targeted to my daughter's demographic.

25 posted on 02/28/2006 6:43:58 PM PST by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: Incorrigible

Celebrity -- known for being known.


26 posted on 02/28/2006 6:46:45 PM PST by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything.")
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To: Incorrigible

And since the cat boycotts Hollyweird and the idiot box too, they are all known for being known to me. I couldn't tell a "Tom Hanks" from a "Tom Cruise", even though I'm told one of them, I don't remember which now, grew up near the cathouse. (And I put their names in quotes, because I don't believe celebrities use their real names. I mean, "Liberace", "Rock Hudson", "Yo Yo Ma"? Get out of here! Hey, wouldn't it be weird if "Tom Hanks'" real name had been Tom Cruise and "Tom Cruise's" real name had been Tom Hanks?)


27 posted on 02/28/2006 6:53:12 PM PST by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything.")
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To: Incorrigible
Since I turned off my TV visits to the supermarket grow increasingly interesting as the number of people referred to by only their first names in People magazine who I actually recognize dwindles to single digits.

The attraction is partly envy, I think, and a curiosity to know what it would be like to be young, rich, and famous. Personally I am perfectly happy being old, poor, and obscure.

As I grow older and grayer,
And totter toward the tomb
I find that I care less and less
About who is sleeping with whom.

Dorothy Parker

28 posted on 02/28/2006 6:55:38 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: higgmeister
>I don't even need to know who Lindsay Lohan is

Check out my home page.
She's the upper right corner.
Circle gets the square!

29 posted on 03/01/2006 7:05:17 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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To: theFIRMbss
Oh no! I've only heard of Hillary Duff and Ashlee Simpson.

I guess your circles make me Square.

30 posted on 03/01/2006 9:21:46 AM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken.)
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To: mc5cents

Eeesh.... Who put the blonde wig on John F'n Kerry?


31 posted on 03/01/2006 9:25:52 AM PST by r9etb
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To: higgmeister
>I've only heard of Hillary Duff and Ashlee Simpson

Prior to Lindsay
Lohan hitting her late teens
and going pop tart,

she was really good
in G-rated, family films.
This is my favorite.

If you ever need
a fun film for an evening,
it's worth the rental.

32 posted on 03/01/2006 11:35:12 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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