Recycled 18 February 2007, 20:10

You know you’re a trainspotter when you blog a comment highlighted on your favourite sex-columnist’s alt-weekly-employer’s blog.

I hate celebrity gossip, probably for the reasons below (“the chief form of celebrity now”). But I feel that one of the reasons blogging is so big is the similar prurience we exercise in following certain blogs; particularly those of our ex-acquaintances. Yes, you. Should you teeter increasingly close to the brink, you know, honey, I’ll be there.

(I make no pledge that I will either indulge in or refrain from blogging you a trainwreck here on Beetroot, but should I ever leave the rails, likely you will not hear it here first. I have other, more responsible, though perhaps less satisfying, uses for the attention of you valued few.)

Not to speak ill of the dead, but I quote:

Mocking the misfortunes of rich, talentless celebrities is the biggest form of entertainment there is. Anna Nicole’s function in life was to be a continuous train wreck. There was no other reason to pay attention to her. There are millions of dumb, pretty girls out there, but only Anna Nicole was able to turn that into a riveting moral and physical collapse. That’s the show. That’s all there is.

It’s the same reason we follow Paris Hilton: no one, not even stupid teenage girls, actually likes her. We like to make fun of her, and wish ill upon her, and laugh when it happens. This is the chief form of celebrity now. Britney Spears, pop star? Popular. Britney Spears, shithead-marrying, cooter-baring, falling-down drunk white trash? SUPERSTAR.

There are many, many more examples. In fact, there aren’t very many counterexamples. Who cares about so-called “celebrities” who are well-adjusted, sane, intelligent, and polite? Nobody. We demand our celebrities be talentless substance abusers, laughably incompetent at relationships and child-rearing, foul-mouthed, retarded, mean and violent.

—Fnarf

I draw your attention to the last line, not shown above. “Hard duty” indeed.

And well, whaddaya know? In an earlier Blog me a trainwreck post with a bit on a similar subject, I link my Bloglines feeds. O disclosure!

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