“Along with the dollar, we've experienced a
regrettable devaluation of celebrity. Anyone over 30 cannot help but wonder:
What the hell happened? The news-ingesting public is bombarded with fake news
of the faux famous, but...who are these people? Did the mainstream media
purposely dumb things down to offer us the current surplus of celebridreck?
This is a chicken-and-egg debate, to be sure, trying to figure out how a bunch
of anorexic, addled, addicted nobodies morphed into household names. Did the
press lead us down this loony path, thinking it profitable, or did the paying
customers make known their yen for drivel? Could people be so depressed by
national and personal problems that they get a media-delivered serotonin fix by
keeping tabs on people who think going to parties is a job? Might celebridreck
be taking the place soap operas used to occupy as diversions from dull lives—but
with real people?”—
American writer and former advice
columnist Margo Howard, “Cambridge Diarist: Celebridreck,”
The New Republic, Dec. 18, 2006
When Ms. Howard—daughter of Ann Landers and ex-wife of
actor Ken Howard—wrote her screed about “the current surplus of celebridreck,”
she was reacting to Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and—God help us—Flavor Flav. In
the decade and a half since, the proliferation of social media has given birth
to countless “influencers.” Is this really a cultural improvement?
(The image accompanying this post, of Jessica Simpson,
was taken June 22, 2008, by John VanderHaagen from Grand Rapids, MI.)
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