# Why do celebrities think anybody cares what they think about foreign relations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-celebrities-think-anybody-cares-what-they-think-about-foreign-relations/158629>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 2, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-celebrities-think-anybody-cares-what-they-think-about-foreign-relations/158629 "2003-03-02T20:15:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![desroscactus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@desroscactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desroscactus)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-celebrities-think-anybody-cares-what-they-think-about-foreign-relations/158629/1 "2003-03-02T20:15:01Z")

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I see so many celebrities on news shows and in commercials, telling everybody not only what they think, but that they are absolutely right. I like the TV show, West Wing, where the character Sheen plays is much more hawkish than he is in real life. I know that it’s not real, and the actors are reciting lines written by other people.

Why do they think anybody cares what they think? How are they on these shows in the first place?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-celebrities-think-anybody-cares-what-they-think-about-foreign-relations/158629/2 "2003-03-02T20:25:31Z")

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Actors are on news shows talking about politics because the news shows think that people will tune in to watch the actor talk about politics, thus increasing the news show’s ratings, and allowing them to charge more per advertising minute than their competitors.

Actors are on political commercials either because they themselves have paid to have the commercial made, or because one of their friends has asked them to be in it, or because they are being paid to be in it.

As for “why do they think anybody cares what they think”, you got me there. 😃

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-celebrities-think-anybody-cares-what-they-think-about-foreign-relations/158629/3 "2003-03-02T20:42:40Z")

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Obviously the people who disagree with them care very much what they say, or the boards wouldn’t be innundated with threads like this one. That rather validates the whole concept of actors speaking their mind.

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**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-celebrities-think-anybody-cares-what-they-think-about-foreign-relations/158629/4 "2003-03-02T20:50:29Z")

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A duplicate of this was posted in General Questions. I felt it was more of an IMHO topic, so I moved it there.

If you feel your topic is a Great Debate, you can e-mail the GD mods and ask them to consider moving your (now) IMHO thread to this forum.

Do NOT cross post topics.

This is closed.

**DrMatrix** - Moderator