Musing on the Stars

Hello, friends. It's quiet here at Castle Marius, save for the sound of the two Kitties-O-The Apocalypse wrestling in the living room, and my codeine-soaked mind is drifting gently through a misty haze, helping me forget the pain in my knees that I must get looked at soon. And as I drift, I find myself wondering about something that has been much on my mind of late. Specifically celebrity. There are many types of celebrity. There is the hard earned celebrity enjoyed by master craftsmen and entrepreneurs, the unwanted celebrity thrust upon those involved in disasters and 'big news' stories, the unwelcome celebrity heaped upon the backs of the grotesquely evil. But through it all there is one common thread...people want to know the Celebrity. Autographs, pictures, trading cards, even clothing or personal effects are all coveted and purchased. I once heard that Marina Sirtis, Star Trek's councilor Troi, would often, while before an audience at Star Trek conventions, take a fresh glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon, bite the lemon and drink a bit of the tea leaving her lipstick upon both, then hand it over to the organizers of the event who would promptly wrap it in plastic and then auction it off, usually for a rather high amount. What is it about celebrities that makes us lose our minds?

I like to say that I am unimpressed by celebrities, but to be honest to both myself, and to you dear readers, I get all stupid and tongue tied when I have a brush with the rich and famous too. I can't say as I have met all that many stars, but the ones I have met, usually while working, have all been memorable. I can't say that about everyone else I've worked with. So why do we do it? What is it about our mental make-up that makes us want to idolize our fellow humans? I can understand being fearful of someone who has power over us, such as the CEO of the company we work for, or the President of the country, but the one time I met Burt Reynolds I was terrified, and the man could do absolutely nothing to me. And I often wonder about the friends of the stars. At what point does someone realize that little Bobby, who they used to give wedgies to and play cops and robbers with, is now Robert DeNiro, and must be treated like royalty? Is it the money? Is it the hope that if we have a brush with the famous then we are somehow more valid as a person? I went to a Star Trek convention once, and George Takei was the guest. We listened to him, laughed with him, he's a very entertaining speaker, and then had the chance to stand in line with hundreds of others to get him to sign something. This I did, for a while. After standing in line for about ten minutes I realized that getting his autograph would mean nothing more than that I spent thirty seconds standing in front of a man who would no more remember me than he would any of the blades of grass passing his car as he drove away. So I left the line. I have very fond memories of my first celebrity encounter, Joyce DeWitt, and even though I don't have her autograph I do have a card she gave to everyone in the cast and crew of the show we were working on together. That means something to me because even though I think I might have had the courage to say all of three 'hellos' to her, we did share an experience. Yet people will actually buy autographed items that they weren't even there to see signed. I just don't get it.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because, as I have mentioned here before, I enjoy several video blogs, and at first I posted comments feverishly on each of them, praying that eventually the people on these vlogs would acknowledge me. It took me a while to realize what I was doing, and once I did I stopped commenting just to comment, and only did so when I had something to say. Then Rocketboom imploded, and Amanda Congdon began posting on her own text-only blog. I made a couple of posts there, but I just realized that I was doing it again. Now, I'm not going off the deep end, nor am I going to begin stalking Ms. Congdon, but I do respect her work, and enjoy her perspective on the world, and I keep thinking of her as a friend, though we have never met. And that mindset keeps manifesting itself as a need for acknowledgement. Again, now that I realize this I have pulled back, but it sparked this line of thought.

Ok, that's quite the ramble. I welcome your thoughts on this, especially those of you in The Biz. I know at least one of you has worked with some really big names. How did you deal with that? And let me take the onus away from any comments and say I would love for you to name drop here. Tell me of any encounters you may have had with those luminaries we can't seem to live without.

Good night, my friends.

Marius