Star-Studded Tragedy?

Sympathy is one thing we Brits are reluctant, to say the least, to feel towards those fortunate enough to find themselves in the entertainment business. It is hard to get sentimental for a multimillion pound couple who are, amazingly, breaking up. Again. 

Just how many times have we seen the phrase “Star- studded tragedy” on the front of OK! Magazine? This is one answer I am confident in: many. Frustration immediately replaces compassion when real news is replaced with the likes of: “Film star involved in Star-studded tragedy”; “Director involved in star-studded divorce” or worse “Singer involved in star-studded lawsuit.” Seriously, not much longer and stars aren’t the only things these celebrities will be studded with.

One person that has graced my television and computer screen over the last 12 months has been the explosively famous miss Miley Cyrus the… singer?  The more grammatically observant of you will have noticed the question mark used in a way of ending the last sentence. I assure you it is not a typo; it was the best use of punctuation in that situation. For, can we call her a singer? 

A celebrity is someone we celebrate, made obvious from the Latin origin of the word: ‘a person who is frequented or honoured.’ In those wonderful times this probably would’ve meant a reasonably good poet, or the Roman that invented the bath; both notable achievements. Today however it seems that more is needed to gain the title; swinging naked on a form of heavy machinery for example.

I fear world domination. Not by Kim Jong-un (yet) but by Miley Cyrus. If 481,225,920 people have watched her video wrecking ball (almost 7% of the world’s population) and 65,000,000 have bought a record by her (a further 0.9%) I think my fears are perfectly reasonable. Especially as Kim Jong-un only has rule over 24.76 million; far less than Miley Cyrus’s fan base. 

In future perhaps we should stick to average poetry and bath tubs instead of Wrecking Balls and provocative dancing?