I can’t even count how many times that I have read a blog, Facebook status or tweet dealing with the personal dramas of a celebrity. I can’t even begin to imagine how many conversations that I have had about stuff that’s out there about celebrities. For some reason it is fun to read about them, watch them, and discuss them. It takes the focus away from what is going on in your own life and gives you something else to focus on….no matter how retarded.
My stance on celebrity news is very simple and my reaction is always this: “damn these folks act just like folks I know around the way!!” This is comforting to me because we, as a people, seem to put celebrities up on a pedestal and treat them like they aren’t human. The reality of the situation is that they go through hard times (just like us), go through relationship issues (just like us), and experience different stages of life (hey….that’s just like us!!) I feel sorry for people with fame. They make their money and livelihood based on their talents and skills. In return they make a LOT of money and get to have a million prying eyes all of in their personal business. I can’t stand when people like to insert themselves into my personal dramas. I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to know that half the country had an opinion about my life.
Take for instance Alicia Keys and more recently, Fantasia. These are two women who are pretty successful in their music careers. Both accused of carrying on with a married man. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what happened with either of these stories. I just know this….somewhere in these events, there was a man that decided that he didn’t want to be married to his wife anymore and went to find something better. Everybody I know has all these comments and they go something like this: Fantasia is a whore! Alicia Keys is a homewrecker! Ummm….if I’m not mistaken…they didn’t do all the work. Why are they under any more scrutiny than one of your friends who is doing the same thing right now?? Were you there? Do you even know the whole story? I don’t. So I am not that quick to judge. I do believe in the sanctity of marriage so in no way am I saying that sleeping with a married man is right. What I do believe is that in matters of the heart, nothing is black and white….just different shades of gray. No one knows the inter-workings of the marriages of these men. We just know what a celeb blogger has put out there. (And be honest….you know most of that consists of lies) Unless you have never in your natural born life have ever flirted, considered, or actually been involved with a person that was in a relationship with someone else, you are a hypocrite. Even if that person wasn’t married, you messed with something that “belonged” to someone else. What makes you better than them?
What makes me even more upset is that they are being punished for what goes on in their personal lives. Look at Chris Brown. Poor thing is blacklisted from stores and radio stations. Stations won’t play his videos. People are threatening not to buy any more Alicia Keys albums. Are they any less talented because of their personal situations? The answer to that is no, if you had to think about it. A pre Swizz Beatz AK album is awesome and the last album she had is awesome as well. Chris Brown is just as talented now as he was before he beat Rihanna. They make personal mistakes, but people want to punish them in their pockets. I don’t think I would appreciate it if my pay got docked at work because things at home weren’t rosy. I would snap because my personal life rarely has an effect on the type of work that I do and has no business being taken into consideration when it comes to my check…..unless you are going to give me more money. I think most people would feel the same way.
