American Idols

I have to admit, for me American Idol is a guilty pleasure. Normally the only shows I obsess about watching are Lost and House, but every January the Fox Network manages to grab me again. What is it about this show I enjoy? I'm sure part of it is nostalgia--we used to watch the British version called Pop Idol long before anyone in the U.S. had heard of Simon Cowell. But another part of it is that every once and a while you stumble on a kid who is so incredibly talented, and so incredibly free of all the junk that comes with celebrity. I think that's what really does it for me--those contestants who are completely devoid of ego and any sense of entitlement, yet possess talent that makes you stand still. Granted, those contestants are few, but they are precious.

On the other end of the spectrum, nothing bugs me more than celebrities whose egos seem to have the gravitational pull of small planets, who seem to suck those around them (and large portions of the public) into the illusion that they are somehow unrestrained by any boundaries of decency and respect that the rest of us adhere to. Just this past week we've seen two high-profile examples in the news of celebrities who exposed sides of themselves that no doubt left their publicists' heads spinning.

Why do we worship celebrity so? I know, I know...it's nothing new. I suppose it's just bugging me a little bit more today than usual. On a local radio show yesterday they asked if an Olympic gold medalists' recent scandal had changed opinions about the man. I wanted to call in and say, "Not at all. I knew he was human then, I know for sure he's human now." Yet I was flabbergasted when some callers said, "I still think he's a good kid, and I'm happy for my children to see him as a role model." In the words of Seth and Amy, "REALLY?"

Forgive my moral posturing, but I wanted to shout at my radio, "HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU CALL HIM A ROLE MODEL FOR YOUR KIDS? YOU DON'T KNOW THE MAN AT ALL!" And that's just what bugs me--we blindly accept the well-crafted, media-friendly image of these stars of big and small screen as the real thing. We look at a person's accomplishments and make judgments on their character from them as though talent=virtue. Then when we discover they're human--when the singer turns out to be a junkie and James Bond likes to slap women around to put them in their place--we give them a pass and continue to encourage our kids to idolize them.

I don't want my son looking up to talented people as role models--I want him looking up to decent, grounded people. I'm not saying these celebrities who have brushes with scandal aren't decent--I'm saying WE DON'T KNOW BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW THEM. These falls from grace might be momentary slips, they might be the tip of the iceberg. But in the end, we simply don't know. So all I can do in light of that is respect their talent and enjoy their work, but I can't appreciate their character. After all, John Whorfin did say, "Character is what you are in the dark." Unless I can see who they are outside the bright lights of celebrity, I just can't say.