Britney and Kevin fighting? I NEVER SAW IT COMING!
I’m sick of how I can’t go into a store to get a bottle of juice without the idiotic magazine headlines being right in front of my face at every turn. Why the hell does the media seem to be so surprised when another lame-o celebrity couple breaks up after 2 weeks/2 months/2 years of marriage? Every time I hear about another star couple shacking up and how they’re SO in love and SO enchanted by each other, I want to vomit. It’s a fucking farce. Does this not make anyone else ill? Why do people seem to love it so much?
I would love to not even hear about this shit, but between the ever-present radio at work and the neon headlines everywhere, it worms its ugly way in anyways.
If Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward break up - that will be news.
Everything else is hype. Because in the world of Hollywood, its hard to have bad press (well, unless someone insinuates you are gay).
I think its sells because people like to believe Brittney Spears doesn’t have a perfect life. Look, Nick is cheating on Jessica…if you can be that beautiful and that rich and still have a scummy boyfriend, it can’t possibly be THEIR FAULT that their relationships suck.
Why do you take the tabloids so personal? What skin is it off your nose if other people revel in celebrity gossip? If you want something to be outraged about, be outraged that I can’t find any potato vodka at the Shop N Save. Oh sure, they’ve got the big-name grain vodkas like Ketel One and Skyy; but why not Glacier?
Because I want to believe that human beings are intelligent creatures capable of great things, but such narrow-mindedness squashes that. That, and the fact that the world pushes this crap in our faces wherever we go, whether we want to know about it or not.
I work at a University. Every store on campus has the same cock rock/gossip spewing station on.
The Man wants to appease the masses of hungover, pop culture loving students (and employees). The rest of us who actually study and/or work have to deal with it. My suggestion to rotate the stations every once in awhile was met with dissaproval.
I dunno about you, but I don’t get most of my reading material from the grocery store. I do, however, occasionally scan the headlines in the grocery store with amusement and voyeuristic tendancies. That I can manage to do that, while still maintaining an interest in politics, copyright and fair use issues, new releases from the alt.country indies labels, new techniques in business analysis, garment design, silly flash based web games, the SDMB, and several other areas of both casual and professional interest would seem to mean I’m less narrow-minded than people who get all worked up over the scary presence of celebrity gossip in cheap tabloids, not more.
Obviously enough people do want to know about it or there wouldn’t be tons of magazines about it, right? It would seem that the magazine-buying majority has spoken. BTW, it might be a silly and shallow interest, but I don’t really understand how it’s narrow-minded. There is little proof that those interested in celebrity interests are interested in little else.
I’ve got a Harvard J.D., I subscribe to the Economist and Scientific American, among other magazines, and am the most intellectual and nerdy person I know.
I also like to read the celebrity gossip rags. I like to look at the clothes, and I find human foibles interesting, as an aspiring psychologist. Also, they just amuse me. I’m not shocked that these people are having problems running their personal lives. That isn’t why I buy the magazines.
Quite frankly, I get some perverse pleasure out of watching people who proclaim their “undying love” to the public taking a fall a few months or years later. It’s satisfying to see the idiots of the world get their comeuppance. It so rarely happens that I get to see that in my own life. Furthermore, when it happens to people I know, I’m too sympathetic to get any pleasure out of it. I realize this isn’t a particularly attractive side of me, but I figure it’s best to have a harmless outlet for ugly feelings.
If you truly don’t understand why people enjoy gossip, pick up a copy of this month’s Psychology Today. There’s an article about why people enjoy gossip so much.
Is it kind of a “Their problems are so big, it dwarfs my problems, plus they’ve made a fool of themselves in the public eye so it’s funny” feeling of satisfaction?
I avoid those types of articles like the plague because I feel dumber for having read them (not a slight on anyone who does read them, just a personal preference). I’d be willing to bet that almost everyone who reads them is just looking for a little schadenfreude.
Not because their problems are bigger than mine. They’re definitely not. I wish my problems consisted of being a self-absorbed, short-sighted beautiful person with more money than sense. I imagine it’s fun, at least for awhile.
It’s schadenfreude. And it’s even victimless, because these people want to have people reading about them. They like the notoriety. There are plenty of movie stars who keep a low profile. The ones in People and Us don’t want to do that. Heck, their publicists are feeding those rags over half the story material. I don’t read the more stalker-ish rags.
I think there’s definitely a contingent of readers obsessed with these people. They really care about Princess Di or Nick and Jessica or Britney. I don’t know anything about their motivations. I personally think they have as many screws loose as the celebs themselves.
Plus, admiring or giggling over the fashion choices is fun.