I think Richard Simmons would be a much better interventionist.

With cell phone cameras, their every bowel movement gets reported. I’m surprised someone hasn’t lost it and strangled Pat O’Brien or killed a papparazzo yet. It’s coming though. LiLo’s bad driving is a mere warm-up.

I have always loved pop culture and keeping up on the latest gossip, but the last year has just left a bad taste in my mouth. I avoid LiLo and Paris stories like the plague. The whole Anna Nicole thing made the evening shows unbearable. And my poor crazy Brit Brit depresses the hell out of me. It’s not fun when people are getting hurt, and I hate to feel like I’m part of the reason they’re under such scrutiny.

Also, I have this weird thing about needing someone to scrutinize this President, this Congress, this whackadoodle war. Maybe if our country had less resources devoted to starlet crotch cams and more to reporting on what’s really happening around us, the average American wouldn’t be as ignorant. There’s a lot of people dying right now. None of them have had a hit single, but the reasons they are dying, namely crime and a corrupt war, have far more to do with where we are going than a small group of rich cokeheads.

Anyway, I couldn’t agree with you more. The breathlessly exclamatory and inflamatory (insert your choice of word that ends with “tory” here) voiceovers that accompany these stories makes the “reporting” seem even seedier.

We can look to psychology, blame human nature, whatever…and Dr. Phil would be happy to explain how people take a certain pleasure in seeing others’ train wrecks to feel better about their own lives.

But going beyond “Why do we care?” (or does anybody care?) the coverage has gotten to the point of feeling dirty just being witness to it. Even as the Brits and LiLos seem to be self-destructing of their own free will, I can’t help but think the constant media attention is another push over the edge. It’s all just sad.