The Why and Wherefore
Celebrities are people just like us, right? That must be why magazines are dedicated to their style misses, weight gains, weight losses and messy breakups. That must be why we refer to them by their first names, as if they’re our friends. “Have you heard that Angelina and Brad have adopted another child?” We love to gossip about them like we’re still in high school.
Unfortunately, we can’t opt out of celebrity culture, at least not entirely. We may pretend to have contempt for this obsession with stars and status, but we still know when Brangelina adopt a new kid. We can’t opt out.
The letters we’re writing aren’t really fan letters. Just like People magazine says more about the readers than the subjects, so too do these letters. We aren’t so different from celebrities, but we’re still worlds apart.