AIBU to be sick of the celebrity culture

I have a friend who lives alone in Spain since her husband died. She came to stay with us for a few days in the summer and kept mentioning 'Mark' and 'Sharon' and 'Fern' and various others of whom DH and I had never heard. Eventually I asked her about all these friends she appeared to have and it turns out they are all TV celebrities. I just thought it was very sad.

I agree vampirequeen am happily ignorant about most of them and what appears to be somewhat shallow existences for some of them.

I think the celebrities are almost willing to sell their souls for a quick buck. They know their celebrity may be fleeting so they cash in as much as possible.

The TV companies and newspapers have a lot to answer for...they're the ones who create these so-called celebrities. By bringing their antics into the public gaze the mass media makes millions...in so doing they often 'make' people and 'break' people. It's sad how some celebrities seem unaware that they are the bait in a media feeding frenzy.

Yep, I'm a cynic

Christine Hamilton is the organ grinder; Neil's the monkey!

Just got back to this. Thank you for your gentle reprimand, Ana. It was a moment's aberration on my part, but actually in the CBA to google it

Neil Hamilton's wife?

Calum Best. I havent seen him around for a while, but I dont know that much about the celebrity world.

Paul Gascoinge's ex wife and her daughter, Bianca, used to be about too.

It's a crazy world where someone can be a celeb simply by being someone else's offspring or spouse. Doesn't George Best's son make some kind of living not for his own inherent qualities but because of his name?

It is probably something they are born with. And I would say no effort required, but they have to spend time in the gym, some of them, and all the other stuff I listed above.

I am going to go against the grain on one point about them.
I do think a few of them who regularly appear on the reality shows circuit have some talent, or skill, call it which you want.
It is that they are inertly interesting to watch.

Whoever hires people for the shows, they knew for instance that Jake Quiddenden [him that was in the X Factor] was interesting to watch for some [he ended up coming second in I'm A Celebrity beating the likes of Mel Sykes, Michael Beurk etc].

If you have to spend all your time working on your looks and persona it leaves no time to develop a personality.

I am not the least obsessed by celebrities. I was at the dentist yesterday and for the lack of anything else to read while waiting for my appointment I was browsing through a 'celebrity' magazine, well I assume they were 'celebrities' because I hadn't heard of any of them. All the girls looked the same; long yellow hair, pumped up and smoothed down faces and revealing clothing. They all sounded as dull as ditchwater.

Reading about these people reminded me of a team building course I went on at work many years ago. After 2 days cooped up with the four other section heads in my department, I went home from the course knowing that I would cross the road and duck behind a wall to avoid ever having to socialise with any of them again. Pleasant people all, but so boring - they probably thought the same of me!

A friend once told me about her 18 year old son who was crazy about a girl at school. She was stunningly beautiful and he couldn't believe his luck when she agreed to go out with him. His mother was surprised when he seemed to have lost interest after a couple of dates but he told her that the girl was the most boring person he'd ever met and couldn't talk about anything but herself, her looks and her clothes. When he thought about it he realised that none of her boyfriends lasted more than a couple of weeks. I imagine there are a lot of cel;ebrities out there who are equally boring.

Never watch any of these reality shows so don't know who the people are, although I know many do and get a lot of pleasure from it and that's fine for them. Most teenagers do grow up and recognise that life is not like that, but it is so sad for the ones who don't.

I don't watch soaps either (other than The Archers and that's not much these days) - Property Porn now, just love it!

Lets face it everybody is obsessed about celebrities these days, but guess what, they're just normal people like you and me. A lot of them have just been in the right place at the right time, met the right people and maybe slept with them as well. The sad thing is when people try to live their lives thru their favourite celebs and hang on their every word or tweet.

Someone has defined Celebrity as:

Notoriety thrust upon a Nonentity

I like that

What does it tell us about the celebrity culture? That how you look is far more important than who you are.

I imagine they do work hard - at exercise, beauty regimes and tips, clothes, accessories, pr, self promotion through Facebook, twitter, selfies etc.

They cant just walk out their door like normal people do either, unless they purposely want to protray an image of normality.

I dont know if they are happy or not. I suspect that a lot of them have low self esteem which I shouldnt imagine is a happy state to be in.

I've only just read this Vampirequeen and it makes me so very sad. It's such a limited view of the world. How many of those celebrities are happy? There's quite a price to pay for fame and not working hard - anorexia, the pain of staying that shape and keeping a beautiful face, the affairs, the divorces! It's a shame that those girls don't seem to have role models to think they might find other sources of happiness in life. Celebrity culture seems worse in the UK than elsewhere it seems to me. I hate it and avoid all celebrities and shows they might be in, etc.

Never watched TOWIE but hear all about it �� from a girl in the office. So called TOWIE "celebs" aren't a true representation of most of Essex. I was born and have lived all my life in North Essex which (in my opinion) is much nicer than the image everyone has of Essex from TOWIE but everyone seems to expect all Essex females to be blonde bimbos.

I love Made in Chelsea . I think it's the least 'real' of the reality shows though. Binky was at a local Asda a while back promoting her book and I was almost tempted to go ....

The only way is Essex. [from ahem Essex I assume!]
Which I think spawned Geordie Shore? [from Newcastle?]
And Made In Chelsea? [from ...!]

There is a Joey something, and Gemma Collins? from TOWIE.
Other than that, I dont think I know anything further about it.

I did watch an episode of Geordie Shore once, and I think they all sleep in the same house, much to my surprise.

I have also watched one episode of Made In Chelsea. They seem to "meet" in ski shops and coffee shops, and their living rooms? I could be wrong.

Of the three, Made In Chelsea seemed the best one.

TBH, I hardly notice the "celebrity culture". Where are you all seeing it all the time?

That's what Google's for, Ariadne! (and others)

I know it's a reality tv show, but I've never watched it.