They act like this because they know it matters to people, and this is what I find saddest of all…it does matter to people.
From Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s MSG wedding to Sam Hermann stepping on stage for the usual improvised moment in the play “Every Brilliant Thing” where an audience member normally comes up to interact with actress Mariska Hargitay but Sam actually proposed live in front of the audience, to Briney Spears’ consistent roll out of knife dance vids, we need no more indication that celebrity culture has surpassed good taste with our American royalty acting out their lives before us consistently like we care.
And again, the sad fact is, we show them that we do.
The public fascination with celebrities is nothing new. But in this age of social media, it has reached a crescendo, to the point where Will Smith is so popular he can slap Chris Rock at the Academy Awards and not get arrested on the spot, which, by law, he should have been. Or us all having to suffer through the barrage of posts from so many of the Hollywood elite declaring how they would leave the country when Trump got elected; how many really did, and why would anybody care if Cher lit out for non-American pastures?
The thing is; we are fed and feed into this belief that our celebrities are better than us. But they ain’t, Potsie. They just mine talents (and in some cases these days it’s less talent than just some sort of see-and-be-seen that has placed them in the public view) that when, exploited in the right way, set them on a world stage. Look at it this way…you might be the very best gardener in your tri-state burb, but since this talent did not land you in a movie or to produce a song that might be pushed upon the public by the weight of a record company, nobody knows about your watering, weeding and planting save for a few friends who might come a’visiting a time or two.
What you do, though, the thing that fuels your soul, your talent, how you define yourself, is no better or worse than Russell Crowe acting in his latest epic or Springsteen entertaining the masses. It’s just that when they become popular in their fields, more people usually know about them.
I’m as happy as I can be for Travis and Taylor, not knowing them and not truly caring about their lives, really. But here are my questions (which answer themselves, I know): When you have untold bucks to pull off any kind of a wedding you want, anywhere you like, why do you choose to do so very publicly? Does T&T need publicity? Was it really for the fans? Might there come a marketable video about it all later?
And again, why do Taylor and Travis think we care?
Because sadly…we do.
