The Dilemma

What’s a girl to do when a celebrity she loves is caught up in scandalous behavior?

All the ridiculous celebrity behavior we see, especially lately with people like Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen, raises a lot of questions to me. I realize that the personal lives of celebrities are really none of our business – making movies for a living doesn’t necessarily mean you deserve paparazzi to stalk you down and catch every embarrassing move you make. Exposing yourself onscreen doesn’t necessarily mean you should have to expose yourself off screen. If you were an accountant, the entire country wouldn’t care if you slipped a nip or engaged in illicit office hijinks with ladies in blue dresses. But at the same time, it’s fascinating. People are nosy. I get that.

It’s really difficult to separate the celebrity from the person, but that’s what I try to do. For example, I very much enjoy a lot of Lady Gaga’s music. Personally I think she’s an irritating, attention-whoring maniac, but I will absolutely throw down a red light dance party to a lot of her tunes. Or take my love of Ben Roethlisberger. I like the guy because he’s a great quarterback. Whether or not he sexually assaulted a girl has no bearing on how he plays the game. I’m not a fan of him because of the guy he is off the field, but yet I feel kind of dirty for being such a big fan when he’s caught in such a nasty scandal. It’s really easy with players like Emmett Smith, who are known for being great on and off the field, to reinforce your fanship by recognizing he’s both a good guy and a good player. I’m a fan of his as a football legend, and as a human being, as separate achievements. Oh, and as a dancer. But with someone like Ben, it makes it difficult to rationalize being a fan at all when his behavior out of uniform is so sketchy. Just because I like the way the guy throws a football or takes a hit in the backfield doesn’t mean I’ve become a one-woman walking endorsement for sexually assaulting the fine citizens of Georgia. On the flip side, where a person you’re not already a fan of has their character brought into question, it’s super easy to make a quick judgment and write them off – say, for instance, Kobe Bryant. I don’t follow basketball, I don’t know much about the guy, so when his hotel room incident blew up, I was pretty quick to just up and decide Kobe Bryant is a douchebag. I admit it, I’m a hypocrite. But how many people do this?

To a point I get it, because if we didn’t have celebrity gossip to spread and make fun of, there would be no magazines or late night talk shows. And I don’t want to live in a world without “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.” But how much is too much? Too much attention is just encouraging and enabling. And seriously, I’m already sick of Charlie Sheen jokes. I’m not a fan of “Two and a Half Men,” but let me ask those of you who are – does knowing Charlie Sheen enjoys spending his down time with cracked-out whores in closets make the show any less enjoyable or funny? It’s not like you’re being asked to watch him consort with nocturnal maidens of joy. At what point does his radical behavior make you write him (and all of his work) off, when you previously so enjoyed it? Lindsey Lohan being a thieving crack fiend doesn’t mean I won’t watch Mean Girls the next time it’s on TV. Alec Baldwin’s rant at his daughter doesn’t make “30 Rock”/Jack Donaghy any less excellent. Usher is single-handedly responsible for forcing Justin Bieber down the throats of the collective entertainment industry, but I forgive him and will absolutely watch him dance any time I can.

I suppose my internal dilemma is hard to articulate, and a lot of this rant has been a sprawling mess of thoughts on the subject. Celebrity gossip fascinates me as a nosy, curious person, but another part of me just wants to go to the movies or watch TV and enjoy/criticize the respective performances based on talent and not criminal histories. I feel dirty when I have to rationalize being a fan of someone for their work and in spite of naughty extracurricular activities. I try to be good at separating the celebrity from the person, but like I said, I’m still absolutely guilty of using scandalous behavior to reinforce my dislike of someone I wasn’t a fan of to begin with and using it to question people who are fans.

Sarcasmo

Currently Excited About:  Season 2 of "Justified."  I should have written about this last week, since that's when it premiered, but I didn't.  Seriously though, such a great show.  It's an excellently gritty FX drama that follows a US Marshal (played ever-so-handsomely by Timothy Olyphant) working in his backwoods Kentucky hometown.  Season 2 just started last week, and with the way Season 1 wrapped up, it wouldn't be hard to start watching now and still enjoy it.  Most of Season 1's storylines were wrapped up pretty neatly, and it shouldn't be a problem to pick things up as you go - or, you could check out Season 1 on DVD, since it was pretty excellent.