Dirt

The new show that Courtney Cox produces and stars in identifies our cultures obsession with celebrities. I will admit my dirty secret of standing in line at the grocery store reading as much as possible about Britney's latest mistake and Lindsey Lohan entering rehab as before I reach the cashier, as well as watching E New Live and Entertainment Tonight. The craze is spinning out of control and with so much money coming in from our love of it, I see no end insight.

In the episode that I watched of Dirt an A list movie star who prides himself on his good family image is caught cheating on his wife with another man. The photographer broke into his house and after being caught by his body guards, swallowed the film to save the picture he took of the two men being intimate together. The film was then surgically removed and Lucy Spiller (Courtney Cox) was thrilled with the extent her coworker went though to save the pictures. This got me thinking about the paparozzi and our consumerism of celebrity based news. There are more magazines on the grocery store stand selling celebrity's news more than any other genre. CNN now has headlines that read "Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaugn Broken Up". Paparazzi are growing in extreme numbers and are more and more stalking out celebrities every move. If you are a celebrity and have put yourself out in public, you most expect some exposure but the extent our culture has taken it seems too extreme. Why do we care when Nicole Richie is seen eating a cheeseburger or Paris Hilton has gone out to the club again. We want to know every detail about their life so we can build them up and then tear them down.

Dirt shows the inside of the industry and the dirty work that goes on in exposing the celebrities. Our obssesion may seem innocent when we can't get enough of hearing detail of the latest hookup or break up, but what is is doing to the celebrities and our news culture? More and more today our young celebrities who grace our front pages are entering rehab and acting out. Though we all usually shrug it off as they are crazy or out of control, our need for private information may be destroying them and our news. Entertainment news has now become important news that needs to be reported on high profile news shows. Yet even after I contemplate it I'll still turn to E and the tabloids because they are entertaining perpetuating the very cycle that I feel is taking over our culture in a negative way.