Just a few weeks back I wrote a piece about celebrities and addiction.
Today I am writing about my own addiction.
I have become addicted to a certain celebrity gossip site which shall not be named. You know the one. It’s run by that ubiquitous, pudgy blogger famed for photo-shopping nasty drawings and observations over photos and generally being the snarkiest snark that ever snarked.
At first his cheery pink site seemed like such fun. I like to think I got on the bandwagon earlier than most people and as such I felt a certain amount of pride in having discovered him.
And as someone who works in the industry he lampoons, I took no small delight in seeing him mercifully expose certain celebrities as the horrible human beings we all know they can be.
But somewhere along the line the worm turned.
I’m not sure if the content of his site has gotten nastier over the last few months or if the same old nastiness, piled upon itself day after day has culminated in something that suddenly seems inexplicably dark and sad.
Maybe it's his refusal to stop making fun of the children of his celebrity targets, given my recent and sincerely heartfelt musings on bullying.
Maybe it’s his continuing potshots at Brittany Spears who appeared to spiral into a full-blown mental-health collapse right on his gleeful cue.
Maybe it’s my own shame at hypocritically bemoaning our culture’s crass obsession with celebrities, while still making the crassest self-promoter of them all rich with my guilty, surreptitious clicking.
At any rate I think I’ve hit rock bottom.
I’m not having fun anymore. I don’t feel good about my participation anymore. A pastime that once seemed harmless, if edgy and entertaining, now just seems skanky.
And while I don’t delude myself that it’s going to be easy, I’m ready to kick the habit. I’ve even decided to redirect my clicking to my favorite blogs, when the urge to surf the dark side becomes overwhelming.
Who’s with me?
15 comments:
I have no idea who you're talking about. Guess I'm a little behind the times. :)
I used to read his site quite a bit, now I'm on to gofugyourself.typepad.com it's a laugh, basically they only make fun of what celebs are wearing!
I'm not really feelin' the love on making fun of celebrities either. Break-downs and doomed children just aren't entertainment.
I saw him doing commentary on VH1 after the VMAs and he made me sick. Girlfriend seriously needs to take a look in the mirror before blasting anymore celebs. There's a line between funny and downright cruel and he crossed it a long time ago.
I completely understand what you are saying. He takes it too far. That's why I like FameCrawler. It's smart snark!
I guess I live in a hole in the ground, I am so not into celeb gossip:) I do read Haley-O's column at urban moms because I luv Haley, but that is as far as I get into it. I do have to agree that mean-spirited gossip, even about celebs, is good to stay away from. As much as possible;)
I love ET and some of the other nightly entertainment shows, but I haven't visited the site you mentioned. I don't like how they hound and hound people, anymore - to the point that it makes their lives miserable. I'm with ya -
I was thinking about this some more today and decided this: if a celeb goes out in public wearing a bright red mumu, they can't expect to not get noticed and made fun of.
But being gleeful over someone else's misfortune? Not cool.
This is an excellent post. The celebrity gossip has taken a nasty turn lately - and sometimes I feel like we are all co-conspirators watching people self-destruct. Like Anna Nicole Smith - and now Ms. Spears. It's awful, and it needs to be reigned back.
The papparazi is just a symptom of this insatiable desire for more gossip...
In the past, celebrity news didn't have the world-wide impact it has now - the internet really magnifies the echoes of gossip. Everything is reported, from what they are wearing, to drinking, to what goes on in court. From here to Timbuktu and back again. It's outrageous.
BTW - lest you think something else - I'm as bad as the next person. If I see something in the paper, I'll read it. And when someone does something stupid, I'll shake my head in self-righteous disgust.
*As if I've never made a mistake*
You're right - I'm going to *stop* going to certain sites! Thanks for the inspiration.
Okay, disassembling soapbox for another time :)
Heidi
Oh how I am a gossip whore! I am ashamed, too, yet can't seem to stop looking. It's such an addiction. It HAS gotten just plain MEAN- that will be one of my resolutions...drop the mean gossip sites!
I'm with you. I admit, I still check his site on a (fairly) regular basis, but it's just not the same. I used to LOVE it and now? I find it kind of sad.
I don't read the site you're referring to. But I do agree--one can over-snark. Thanks for visiting.
With you girl. For a long time now.
Leave them alone. We are all train wrecks at times.
snarcking is boring. And bullying.
I used to LOVE his site, too...but he has gotten nastier over the last few months. I'm trying to break the addiction, too! LOL!
I only clicked over to his site once or twice, oh, probably a couple of years ago now. He just seemed so darned nasty that I just couldn't get behind it (especially after I saw and heard him on television - um, glass houses anyone?)
Good for you!
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