Interesting article in yesterday’s LA Times about how television has moved into the celebrity making business. It used to be that TV was about showing celebrities to average folks. Normal everyday people could gawk and worship from afar, viewing the “ideal” celebrity lifestyle through the screen, dreaming of what it must be like to be rich and famous.
Well, now we get to find out for ourselves, as TV has now moved into actually making celebrities of commoners. From “American Idol” through “The Apprentice”, “America’s Next Top Model”, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, ESPN’s “Dream Job” and now “The Swan” (to name just a few), the point of much TV programming has become to make people’s dream come true.
The ironic part of this is that being a celebrity has never made anyone really happy. Why is this everyone’s dream? Can no one see that celebrities lives are just as empty and depressing (if not more so) than everyone else’s? Hasn’t anyone watched “Newlyweds,” for Pete’s sakes? Yet tens of thousands of people line up for a chance to be humiliated on “American Idol.” It’s time to wake up. Money and fame are never going to fill the void that only God can fill.
Today we commemorate the 10th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death – just one in a long line of celebrity suicides. Will it take the untimely death of the next “Fear Factor” champion for people to see the light?