Another month, another celebrity cracks under the pressure. There’s nothing special about celebrities, especially television and film celebrities, except that they’re famously entertaining.
It’s unfortunate when a celebrity does something stupid or belitting in public like Michael Richards, but it’s much more dangerous when a celebrity tries to use their power to produce and distribute well-crafted but seriously misleading information to the masses, such as Mel Gibson’s ‘historical’ films. He was at his best in fluffy action films like Lethal Weapon that have, and more importantly imply, little to no basis in reality. When his hackneyed and overwrought version of William Wallace’s story, or his version of the American Revolution, become the ones that we and our children use to gain our historical perspective on these formative events, then we’re in real trouble.
Another example of this undeserved power our society gives to celebrity is Tom Cruise and his support of scientology and derision of psychology. His influence seems to have waned a bit lately, but not his fascination to the media, and presumably to the public.
The only answer is more celebrity send-up sites like What Would Tyler Durden Do?