DEATH BY ENTOURAGE: THE EXCESS BAGGAGE OF MODERN CELEBRITY

National Post and Steynonline ^ | 2 July 2009 and 3 September 2001 | Mark Steyn

[JLS]

'A Funeral To Die For" declared the front page of The New York Post, as Aaliyah departed this mortal coil in a traffic-snarling horse-drawn cortege with silver casket and ceremonial release of 22 doves, one for each year of her brief life. Like almost everybody else, I'd never heard of the bestselling r'n'b'n'movie star until her Cessna crashed just after takeoff a week ago. But that's okay. Nobody's that popular any more: Popular culture is more accurately characterized these days as a lot of mutually hostile unpopular cultures.

[JLS]

This is the Steyn request of the week and I thought it was quite an interesting read for this week. It will be interesting to see ultimately how apt.

[JLS]

A Steyn ping opportunity. I am ok either with you pinging or not on this greatest hits flashback article. You make the call.

[tet68]

coming at her like a Rochelle Riley sentence careering toward a multi-metaphor pile-up.

Steyn the master at his best.

[JLS]

Yep that was one of my favorite lines in this column too. The headline about the “fat guard” was pretty good too. As Steyn likes to point out the US print media is dying but they would never print such a politically incorrect headline.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Excellent. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Or, as is said in SE Asia, “same, same, but different”.