0 The Case of the "Crazy" Celebrity

It's a scenario we've become all too familiar with. A celebrity has their stint in the limelight, and before we know it they become the center of attention, not for their talent, but for their misfortune.

This misfortune can be trouble with the law, erratic behavior, controversial comments/actions, drug problems, sometimes it can all of them combined.

After a while, the general consensus becomes: "Well, I guess (insert celebrity's name here) has gone crazy." 

Yet, for many people, that's when the real show begins.

We laugh at them, comedians make jokes about them, tabloids exaggerate stories about them and TMZ has a field day with them. But no one stops and thinks, "What if that was me?"

What if it were you that the media was talking about 24/7? What if you were constantly being publicly criticized for nearly everything you did?

What if you had your privacy invaded and had people asking you questions about your personal life every time you went out in public?

Don't get me wrong, this isn't meant to be me speaking on pedestal or to say that some celebrities aren't directly responsible for the controversies they face.

What I'm saying is that celebrities are people too. They make mistakes, they go through things emotionally and psychologically. But the difference between us and them is that they have money and millions of people watching them.

A prime example of this can be seen in the recent controversy surrounding actress Amanda Bynes. Bynes was once a promising young actress and in her younger years, she was a stand-out talent on Nickeloden.

But in the past year, she's fallen on some hard times, she's been in the news for alleged drug issues and other legal issues, as well as various episodes of erratic behavior.



Now it's quite obvious that Amanda Bynes is someone who is going through a lot mentally, yet the world simply sits back and enjoys the show.

Her story isn't that different from that of Kat Williams, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, and many others.

What these people really need is help, not news coverage.

Yet, whats really wrong with this is that some of the same people who laugh and make a spectacle out of celebrities' misfortune are the same ones who idolize them when they die as a result of their stress.

Need an example?

Look no further than the "King of Pop" himself, Michael Jackson. 

He was another person who was demonized, and portrayed as "crazy" in the media, and even accused of false crimes, and what did many of us do? We fed into it.

We couldn't understand why he seemed so different from us. We didn't know why he chose to dress, talk and act the way he did, we just let the media write him off as being "crazy", as being a "rapist" and a child molester. Those controversies are believed to have intensified many of Jackson's drug problems, which is directly related to his untimely death.

Yet, after he died, everyone became Michael Jackson fans again. After we recognized how talented he really was since he was no longer with us, many of us started to say, "Hey, maybe Michael wasn't as bad as they made him out to be." 

Does anyone see a big problem with this?

Why does it take for a person to die for us to have some type of empathy for them? 

Why don't we question the reasons behind people's controversy while they are alive?

Why do we let the media control our opinion of public figures and why is the media so quick to tear these people down?  

Lauryn Hill, another troubled star whom many people have deemed "crazy", said it best in her song Superstar: 

"Just as Christ was a superstar... They'll hail you, then they'll nail you, no matter who you are."  

Maybe these celebrities that the media are always talking about aren't the main ones who are "crazy", maybe something else is "crazy", like society.

Maybe the entertainment industry itself is a bit twisted and maybe America's obsession with the personal lives of celebrities is strange. 

How about we try to focus on handling our own personal issues?  

Or what if we stop paying so much attention to celebrities and start paying more attention to the people in our lives that matter, like our families?

Or maybe I'm just talking crazy.