Wednesday, June 07, 2006

For some fifteen minutes of fame is too much

Maybe I am missing something. Are famous people really that much more special than the rest of us? I have met a few big time famous people. Maybe ‘met’ is too strong a term. I worked at a bookstore in Santa Monica and sold stuff to some big time famous people. George Carlin, Goldie Hawn, Rick Springfield (well he was famous at the time), and Dick Van Dyke were customers of mine. I didn’t really talk to them, beyond “That will be fifteen dollars and seventy-eight cents, please.” Each was polite. They didn’t expect special treatment because they were stars. Each person was quite normal. There was no ethereal glow emanating from their eyes and extremities. I did not hear music playing as they approached the cash register. They behaved like normal folks so I treated them like normal people.
I bring this up because there was a major ripple of excitement in Dodge City. A star of epic proportion was sighted in the area. This person has had a major impact on movies, on literature, on television. This person has cast a massive shadow (I am resisting a fat joke at this moment) over the entire nation and its culture. Am I talking about a person who has written a novel of such humanity and depth it has touched a generation? Am I talking about a person who invented a new format for television which revolutionized the art form? Nope. Oprah was in southwest Kansas!
The visit was reported in this very paper. What did they report? They reported what she ate. Her first visit was to Clark Pharmacy in Cimarron where she had a root beer float and shared an orange smoothie with her friend. Do I really need to know what she had? On the other hand, by reporting what she had it proved she had not done her homework. I lived in Cimarron for ten years. I loved going to Clark’s. The thing to order is a “black and white.” This concoction of ice cream, chocolate syrup and marshmallow stuff is actually good enough to cause the one consuming it to attain a beatific state akin to a Buddhist getting to end of the Eight Fold Path and becoming one with the universe. Okay, I exaggerate just a bit. However, I do believe one hot day in July I ate a large “black and white” and heard an astral choir as I slipped into a blissful sugar stupor.
Being famous seems to guarantee people will care what happens to you, but it does not guarantee what a famous person does should be made public. For example, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s every breath must be photographed and sent to every media outlet in the world. I have nothing against either of these people. They do seem to have a greater amount of social consciousness than many movie star types. Can you picture Jessica Simpson trying to help fight hunger in third world countries? Actually, Jessica Simpson identifying third world countries on a globe is difficult to envision. Back to Jolie and Pitt, they recently had a baby. Lots of people have babies, heck, my wife and I have had three of them. But then we are not rich and famous. I know if I was a filthy rich individual with resources and opportunities galore I would choose to have my baby in Namibia. Everyone knows if Johns Hopkins University Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center is not handy flying to a small West African country sandwiched between the Namib and Kalahari Deserts is the next best thing. After being sure they had their child in the most reasonable environment they could arrange they proceeded to name the little helpless girl Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.
It may be necessary to get Congress involved in order to stop the senseless brutality that is celebrities naming their own children. We have Courtney Cox and David Arquette naming their daughter Coco. Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband named their first child Apple and the most recent one Moses. Geri Halliwell, who barely counts as a famous person since she is a former Spice Girl, named her daughter Bluebell. I’m sorry but that is the name for the milk cow in a Little House on the Prairie story not a baby girl who has to live with it for the rest of her life. The scariest thing about this concept may revolve around the most reasonable name given by a pop culture icon. A baby boy was named Sean, a strong name without connotations which bring to mind fruit, cows, or breakfast cereal. This name was given by Britney Spears. It may be a sign of the apocalypse when she is the voice of reason.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It may be a sign of the apocalypse when she is the voice of reason.

Lol.

I was blog surfing and stumbled/clicked on yours. I've enjoyed reading your last few posts. Subtle humor is the best kind. :)

mrsd