Same Game, Different Players

by Kederick Wilson

It seems one of the most popular trends for 2011 are celebrity meltdowns. Charlie Sheen kicked off the New Year with televised rants on multiple of media outlets after getting fired from his popular show “Two and a Half Men” and Chris Brown, R&B singer, followed suit after his interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America”. Both did have success after their meltdowns. Chris Brown’s album was top five in the country in album sales last week, while Charlie Sheen turned his meltdown into a sold out 20-city tour and one million viewers on his own webcast. These celebrity meltdowns tell us more about America’s culture today than it does about the celebrities themselves.

My problem with the latest Charlie Sheen episode is it’s not about a talented actor who’s possibly throwing away his career, but it’s why do we care about it in our society. In a time when revolutions are happening in the Middle East, nature is wreaking havoc across the world, and the United States economy is still in doubt of full recovery, the media still find a way to give us updates on Charlie Sheen’s 20-city tour. The bad thing about it is people want to know how tour is doing.

In the 2000s, America has shown an increased tolerance towards celebrities’ bad behavior. In 2006 at the height of their popularity, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie almost made it cool to get DUIs. Also in the mid-2000s Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney Spears younger sister, got pregnant as a teenager. MTV would later have television shows dedicated to the lives of teenage mothers.

Our obsession with celebrities has gotten so bad doctors have created a term for it called Celebrity Worship Syndrome, it’s a condition in which a person is extremely obsessed with somebody who is considered a public figure such as a film, television star, music star or politician.

“What’s in our DNA, as a social animal, is the interest in looking at alpha males and females; the ones, who are important in the pack,” said Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D., spokesman for the Psychological Association and professor of media psychology at California State University. We are sociologically preprogrammed to “follow the leader,” says Fischoff.

People look to celebrities to escape problems in their own lives. Celebrities are able to touch the basic emotions of people and give them some time away from their everyday life. “It was interesting,” said Steve Novak, an attendee told a local television station at Charlie Sheen’s Cleveland show. “It took my mind off my everyday troubles. Made me think that even someone like him with tons of money and famous friends can have problems.”

America needs to get its sense of perspective back. Fantasy is temporary, reality is permanent. Until we find a way to make our reality better; we’ll still be chasing the stars.

Other suggested sites:

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Television_44/Timeline-of-the-Charlie-Sheen-meltdown.asp

http://www.webmd.com/skin-beauty/features/new-age-celebrity-worship

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/06/charlie-sheen-show-a-success-in-cleveland/

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/11/23/the-psychology-of-celebrity-worship/