Yes, I'm defending celebs

So this morning I got highly annoyed by something that really doesn’t matter at all. I was listening to a coworker (who is only a year older than me) rant like a backwards-stuck-in-his-ways 58 year old man. He does this pretty regularly, and I usually tune it out, but today it was exceptionally loud and about celebrities. It was in reference to Shia LeBeouf’s latest run-in with the law involving a wreck and alcohol (we call these DUIs).

“Celebrities always have to do stupid things to get in the news, they just do this to keep themselves famous.” I, of course, disgreed with him and said, that people do stupid things all the time, we just hear about celebrities doing it because they are, in fact, celebrities and are in the public eye. And he, of course, in so many words told me I was wrong and that “normal” people didn’t go around doing stuff like that… Um, okay Mr. I Went To A Private Religiously Affiliated School That Doesn’t Even Allow People Of The Opposite Sex To Hold Hands (really he did, and really they are seriously that strict), something tells me you don’t have a good perception of the real world… Try going to any standard college campus, or any town in general and tell me that no one drives “buzzed” or drunk. Looking at the cases with the most impact: there were approximately 13,470 deaths from “alcohol-related” accidents in 2006… I’m sure those were all caused by celebrities because they’re the only one’s that do “things like that.”

Here’s another example. Everyone is freaking out about the photos of Britney Spears standing on a patio with her young son. She is smoking a cigarette, and her pack of Marlboros and lighter sits on the table. The photo sequence shows her son reaching for the pack and the lighter, picking them up, and then her snatching them away from him. Final conclusion: Britney Spears is definitely an unfit mother and shouldn’t be allowed to see her children. Ever. (…Please tell me you sensed the sarcasm in that…) Wake up people. There are approximately 22.6 million women that smoke in the United States…how many of those women have children, and how many of those children have reached for their mother’s pack of cigs? I’m going to take an uneducated guess and say the percentage climbs into the high 80s and 90s.

So I guess you could say I’m a celebrity advocate. If you were a celebrity think about all of the stuff that would be smeared across the tabloids? (Unless of course you’re perfect, like my coworker…) I’d probably make it on the page of “Celebrities Without Makeup,” or have a headline that says “Another breakdown for Susanna” or “NEWSFLASH: Susanna forgot to pay for her refill” (which I’m sure would be followed by an evil article about celebrities being jerks who think people owe them something).

Seriously people, there are more important things to worry about. Get over it and stop hating.