it comes in pints?

Yeah, so much of what they talk about as "celebrity news" is basically vultures circling.

Look at what they did when the stripper-turned-starlet died last year. (They're STILL talking about it in some shows). A lot of them tend also to focus heavily on missing/abducted people, or exceptionally obese people who are trying to lose weight, or children with bizarre health challenges. People who aren't famous, but that they make famous - it's kind of the modern equivalent of the freakshow.

There's a certain strain of morbid curiosity in the American (and hell, maybe other nations too) public that these shows caters to. I have a friend who's totally into this stuff so I get to hear a lot about it. It makes me kind of sad, really...if I developed Elephant Man's disease or some other kind of horrible affliction, God forbid, I'd not want to be trotted out on national tv for people to gawk at.

I don't know, Ricki. The "freak show" element is definitely there, but I think it's a lot tamer than it used to be. Think about the old traveling carnivals, where the word "geek" actually originated - from people who would flock for miles to come see people willing to bite the heads off of live chickens and things like that. I know Shaq's got a show right now where he's helping overweight kids become healthier. Bless his heart. There's something really inspirational about that, that he'd use his celebrity to actually help people rather than just use them to feed his ego and line his wallet. I haven't watched it, but it's one of the few reality shows out there I can think of that doesn't make me sick to my guts from the tacky nature of it.

There is a "vultures circling" nature to all of it, but I think the whole thing is very symbiotic. Celebrities put themselves out there. If we're going to make animal analogies, then the celebrity equivalent is people carrying raw meat to attract them. Not all famous people are like that - most of them, in fact, live quiet, dignified lives outside of the chores required by their profession. But the ones you see in the tabloids day in and day out? Nearly all of them are there by choice because they crave the attention, even if it's negative.

I don't think it's American. I think it's human. It's craning your neck to peek at the horrible accident, even though we know we're going to be disgusted by what we eventually see. Reality television is definitely catering to that, but my theory on its current prevelance is not that the tackier shows are really all that popular; it's that they're exponentially cheaper to produce. With no big stars to pay, no elaborate studios needed, etc., they don't need that large of an audience to break even the same way a network drama would.

Emily -
Shaq does seem like a big friendly guy who just happens to play basketball, you know? And it's odd, but people expect (in some cases, almost DEMAND) to see obsessively driven talents, they want everyone with supreme ability to have that killer drive, and they'll hold it against an athlete if they don't. Then, when they see the side effects of the killer drive - the gambling problems, the surliness, the ego - they moralize about that as well. (There's a book in that, which is still on my list of things to write.)

In other words, kudos to Shaq; both for this and for his police activity down in Dade County.

(And Jimmy Kimmel had the best quip about Shaq's Kid Fit show: he helps them slim down, and they help him with his free throws.)