I saw a brief article recently that showed actor/celebrity/eccentric Bill Murray popping in to crash another couple’s engagement photos—this time in Charleston. The pretty betrotheds were posing for the photographer when Murray wandered up, lifted his shirt and started razzing the couple by slapping his belly. So the photog eventually pulled him into the photo for a typical Murray deadpan pic.
Now, I’m not gonna put down the Murr-ster. I mean, he seems like the harmless and good-natured type—ambling in to make people smile and to steal the limelight for a moment or two. There’s somebody like that in just about every family, really. The just-a-hair-off-plumb uncle or auntie who does what he or she can to get the room to notice. A good pal of mine would talk about his granny who always dominated family photos, hooking the kids with her cane and secretly coloring all the monkeys in their crayon books purple.
However, with this latest antic by Mr. Murray it got me thinking about the whole celebrity worship thing once again.
Not only will we welcome a total stranger into our most precious moments because of his or her fame, we as a society take cues from the famous on just about everything. We listen as they go on about what to wear, what to watch and how to spend our hard-earned cash. Sometimes, we look to them for inside knowledge about social change, politics, relationships (yeah, that’s worth listening to) and even our health care.
I remember how a few years back some women were scrambling to dehydrate their birth placentas and make them into vitamins so they could follow the health regimen of Mad Men‘s pretty January Jones. And this year, teen star Shailene Woodley had fans examining the health benefits of naked sunbathing and eating clay. I use these two as examples because, well, following their tips probably won’t kill you, at least. There are much worse and crazier.
“People need to always be thinking about what evidence underpins whatever health claim we hear,” said Steven Hoffman, assistant professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at the DeGroote school of medicine. “It makes sense to follow a model’s advice on fashion or an actor’s advice on presentation, or a former president’s advice on foreign policy. But it doesn’t make sense to follow Jenny McCarthy’s advice on vaccines.”
So, the question is, why do we give these celebrities so much power in our day-to-day existence? If we’re talking about singers or movie stars, the deal should be done after we download the tunes or walk out of the theater, right? We got the entertainment we paid for. So why do we keep obsessing? Why do some of us cling to news about Kim Kardashian’s wedding(s) just because she, well, does whatever it is she does?
That adoration has become so common and problematic that psychologists have even given it a name: Celebrity Worship Syndrome. Scientists say the syndrome could stem from a variety of sources, but one that seemed to hold water was idea called the American Dream Theory.
The old school “American Dream” used to be all about living a happy, hard-working life—having a place of faith to worship in and a nice home where you could raise a loving family. Well, the experts say that’s changed. A BusinessNewsDaily.com writer put it this way while talking about a new survey:
Fame and fortune have replaced faith and family as the linchpins of the American dream, a survey of more than 500 U.S. adults over 18 discovered. … Almost two-thirds of Americans said the dream is different from what it used to be. The country is moving away from traditional notions of the ideal life—one centered around community and family, with religious faith and middle-class values as the guiding ethos—toward one focused on making and spending money and winning recognition, the survey found.
The idea behind this new American Dream Theory, then, is that since our priorities have shifted, our sights have turned from the hard-working neighbors around us to the gazillion-dollar-earners on the big screen. Hey, they’ve made it. In this crazy world of bills and can’t-get-a-job woes, those guys and gals have grabbed the golden ring. They’ve got the mansions, the designer children, the plastic-surgery, the bling. So they must be smarter, keener and have all the answers that we haven’t been able to grasp.
Somehow, though, as our new priorities drive us to latch onto these pretty celebs, we overlook the fact that most of them don’t seem very happy at all. No, wait, I’m wrong. We do notice it when they come crashing down from their pinnacles with drug and alcohol addictions, broken relationships and over-plasticized body image problems. But often, we notice it just long enough to shake our heads and attribute the crash to the particular failing celeb and not to, say, elements of the celebrity lifestyle itself.
OK, so I’m starting to vent aren’t I? Sorry.
To think, this train of thought all sprang from a mention of sad-sack Bill Murray stepping into an engagement pic. Hey, I like the guy. His average-galumph persona kind of reminds me of a neighbor lady I know with a lopsided grin and a house full of parakeets.
Of course, I wouldn’t dream of taking her advice on eating placenta and clay.
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