29 November 2009

Crashing the Divide Between Self-Obsessed Celebrity-Seekers and Serious People

I've been thinking quite a bit about the incident last week where an uninvited couple seeking their 15 minutes of fame crashed a White House dinner party. It was a major security breach and even though the couple passed through security scanners without any weapons, thus not posing any threat to any of America's political leaders, they are the next folks in a series of people who are looking for fame and fortune at any cost. Apparently the couple is now in negotiations with the Bravo! Network for a TV show, and they also had a camera crew following their adventures at the White House.

To me, there should be a separation between entertainment and state. Let the celebrities do their thing while the serious people conduct the business of the country. There are certainly some very well-educated and highly articulate celebrities that voice their political opinions--the governor of California is the freakin' Terminator, after all--but more often than not we get the eye-rolling escapades of Britney Spears or Sean Penn. I have a great fear that one day a major political party is going to elect its presidential candidate or party leader on an American Idol-style show, complete with 20 second soundbites, choreographed dance numbers, and the winners are judged by Ellen Degeneres and Simon Cowell. For goodness sakes, we already have Sarah Palin on the precipice of being the Republican candidate for 2012; imagine the possibilities of how it could get even worse!

Getting back to the White House crashers, we've already crossed the line when it comes to self-obsessed celebrity seeking. The balloon boy incident was an embarrassment, and the family should be in jail or some sort of counselling, not hoping the good executives of TLC call looking to make them the next John & Kate. The fact that two dumbasses think that getting into the White House to pose for pictures with Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel should be their ticket to fame and notoriety is kind of revolting to me. These clowns can go crash Paris Hilton's birthday or have live sex on Facebook or whatever obscure means they want to go through to find their 15 minutes and get their TV show. Leave the serious people who have serious things to do alone. Sure they were having a little party - it's not an invitiation for YOU to come join. And really, the politicos have their own ways to make asses of themselves for the gossip pages.

2 comments:

sassy said...

The couple who crashed with White House event = rather gauche, or in word they would understand, trash.

What's with these people and the extremes they go to for their 15 minutes of unearned / unwarranted fame?

RGM said...

That's the $64,000 question, really. There's something about the North American psyche that motivates people to do crazy things so that they can be famous for the sake of it. Some people want to be known for having done something important to benefit their society, some want to be renowned for curing disease, and then there's those that just want to see their face on TV.