Celebrity Obsession: How Much for a Pair of Paris' Panties?

American society feeds on the lives of the famous. Checkout lines at every grocery store are plastered with popular magazines dedicated to star sightings and celebrity gossip, like Us Weekly shown below. Even television shows like Entertainment Weekly and Extra have gained success by prying into the private lives of public icons. Although society has always had a degree of celebrity worship, Cosmos Magazine explains that the internet boom has made it more “prevalent and intense,” in not just the U.S., but the entire Western world. Dr. Stuart Fischoff, spokesman for the American Psychological Association, explained in a WebMD Article that today, celebrity worship is bigger than ever, "You have a confluence of forces coming together in technology and the media to make it happen and it's worldwide and it's multiplying like lice." The public is continuing to demand juicy stories and the prices that publications are willing to pay for them are skyrocketing. Yet, how far is too far when infiltrating the personal life of a star? Paying $4 million for baby Shiloh’s photos is one thing; selling Paris Hilton’s dirty linens, diaries and medical information for public display is another. Celebrity obsession has fueled a business that profits by disregarding the privacy and feelings of human beings. It has crossed the line to become another ethical defect in our society.

Paris Hilton is the celebrity that the American public loves to expose: from her infamous sex tape in 2004, to the personal photos and phone numbers hacked from her T-Mobile Sidekick a year later. Her party girl antics, heiress status and famous friends make Paris an ideal media target. She has even learned how to manipulate her mishaps to feed her fame and fortune. In fact, Hilton released her sex video, 1 Night in Paris (the cover seen to the right) after the film was leaked over the net. Fans and paparazzi continue to push the envelope when delving into Hilton’s personal life and just last week this intrusion was brought to an entirely new level. Hilton is suing Parisexposed.com, a subscription based website flaunting Paris’ personal belongings. David Hans Schmidt, known as “The Sultan of Sleaze” because of his time in the porn industry, and entrepreneur Bardia Persia acquired the possessions indirectly, which include“18 personal diaries, sex tapes, topless photos, love notes, medical records and friends' phone numbers scribbled on paper napkins,” says Susan Donaldson James of ABC News. They paid $10 million for the items after Paris failed to pay a $208 fee at a storage locker when she was between mansions. For website owners to make millions of dollars by revealing another human’s most intimate information is appalling. Although Hilton’s behavior often invites public voyeurism, there is a difference between photographers to taking scandalous pictures of her out on the town and purloining her possessions from behind lock and key. Making a business out of embarrassing and violating well-known people may be lucrative but is certainly not ethical. “Celebrity worship is big business,” psychologist James Houran explained, “but from a social standpoint, it’s not healthy.” Many big names exploit this obsession, making great money appearing on billboards and television advertisements, but there is a darker and more intrusive side to the growing phenomenon.

Superstar fixation is not just an American issue either. Terence Blackler brought up one of the most famous paparazzi permeations in Britain’s The Independent: “From the moment when photographers swarmed over the dying Princess Diana to get shots which magazines would pay for and publish, ideas of privacy and decency changed for ever.” The heartbreaking incident highlighted the unrelenting nature of the paparazzi, but the business of celebrity fascination continued. To the left is a photograph of Diana being pursued by the paparazzi. December 2006, nine years after the tragic accident, Jean Francois Musa, owner of Etoile Limousines in Paris, announced that he would be selling the wrecked limousine in which Princess Diana was killed for £1 million. The British news source Daily Mail expressed concern for Diana’s children, “The attempt by someone to make a huge profit out of the tragedy is set to cause further heartache to Princes' William and Harry.” Princess Diana was a world icon. Celebrity worship gave her the ability to do many charitable acts but also holds great responsibility for her death. The desire to obtain huge earnings from the event and the fact that someone is willing to pay so much for the tragic artifacts, especially considering circumstances surrounding her passing, is just another example of flaws in society’s morality.

Celebrity worship is a vicious cycle; the media fuels the public’s fascination, while the public creates demand for the media. With the recent growth in the internet and technological communication, the obsession seems to have spun out of control. Blackler addresses these concerns, “No event is too intimate, distressing or revolting to be a nice little earner indeed, the nastier it is, the bigger the pay-off is likely to be.” Star mania has grown so that the most violating material is the most profitable. Scandal, heartache, torture, disease and embarrassment have become a treat. A line must be drawn in respect for humans and their right to privacy; people should not be rewarded for putting another’s personal life on display. Sometimes the public forgets that celebrities are real people with real feelings and should be given the respect that human beings deserve.