Celebs Ain't Family, So Stop Caring So Much

Jan. 31, 2008 — -- It was about 10 minutes before 5 p.m. on Jan. 22, and I was deep in New York City's trendy Meatpacking District at the new Helmut Lang showroom, talking to some young women in public relations about the re-launch of the nouveau hipster brand, when a symphony of techno bells and ringers began to serenade us.

"OMG!" the first woman said — and in perfect harmony, like the backup singers for a Motown group, a second gasped as a third sighed. Then they all chimed in to deliver the tragic news that at 3:35 p.m., Heath Ledger, 28, had died.

The dynamic of the room shifted. We suddenly all had to confront our own mortality in that fleeting second.

But before you could say Oscar buzz, everyone had an opinion about the poor deceased star. How he lived, who he was, and how he died. Did any of us know him? No, but as if we were his immediate family members, we were privy to the morbid news and all the details of pill bottles and erratic panicked calls to Mary-Kate Olsen (who in true celeb style dispatched her security team instead of calling 911).

Within moments of Ledger's death, the rumors and the facts began to blur. Every television station was talking about it; so was everyone. Fans and paparazzi quickly descended on the rather private actor's home in SoHo and on his ex-fiancee's apartment in Brooklyn, creating makeshift memorials and a wall of cameras to pry into the grief-stricken family's most intimate moments.

Does anyone have a modicum of decency or respect for this mourning family, or are we all so addicted to drama and gossip that we can't even behave like respectful human beings, with a touch of compassion and class? Are our own lives so empty and shallow that we must invade strangers' private lives for a little amusement? Or should we blame the Internet and cable news for making us privy to so much information that isn't really any of our business?

For months, Britney Spears' life has disintegrated in front of us like an Alka Seltzer, and we have all watched it as if it's one of our favorite soap operas. And to many of us, the drama has become our guilty pleasure. How many people can say they haven't sat around with friends and discussed what Spears should or shouldn't do?