Volume 96, Issue 40
Friday November 8, 2002
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Making life tolerable
We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief – Winona Ryder has been brought to justice.
The actress was found guilty Wednesday of grand theft, after she made off with over $5,500 in trendy threads from a New York City boutique. In a stunning turn of events, Ryder will serve no prison time.
Well duh!
Everybody knows celebrities don't go to prison. With the amount of money,
connections and public support they have, the only attorney that couldn't
get them off the hook is probably another celebrity of sorts, Lionel Hutts
of Simpsons fame.
Celebrity really is a double-edged sword. On one hand, why aren't they held to the same standards as everyday people? After a normal trial where the defendant was found guilty of grand theft, when would you ever expect to hear the prosecuting attorney proclaim that he or she never had any intention of sending the guilty person to jail, as happened at the conclusion of the Ryder trial?
Never had any intention of sending her to jail, you say? Well that should re-affirm people's beliefs that their tax dollars are hard at work, cleaning up society and holding the values of justice high and true.
By the same token, why is it that when a celebrity makes even the most minute mistake, the coverage given would make one inclined to think that a war broke out?
The simple answer is, scandal sells. Networks know this, papers know this (clearly) and why not exploit people's unhealthy obsession with stars if it means more dollars? In truth, the media and people themselves are probably equally guilty of contributing to celebrity mania.
People definitely have an unhealthy attachment to stars and the media caters to that. Why is it that, on any given day, it is completely normal to hear somebody tell you that they "just love" Johnny or Jane Hollywood for the way that particular star has made life tolerable. However, hearing somebody go on and on about how great the doctor who helped give him or her life would cause you to react as if the person had just quietly mentioned he or she recently took a vacation to Neptune.
Isn't there enough drama in our own lives to warrant attention? Chances are you probably know somebody who stole something during some point in their life.
Instead of turning our attention to what are essentially fictional lives to us, why not gain a little perspective and take a peak at what's going on in our own day to day affairs? We don't need to "get a life," we just need to get wise to the fact that we all have one and focus on it, instead of the abstract lives of others.
When it comes to being unthinking star gazers, we're all a little guilty.
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