Celebrity

Celebrity. It's the one word that combines fame with fortune. Its mention conjures up feelings of accomplishment and excitement. It's the one status symbol everybody -- to some degree -- aspires to have. It's also one of the factors contributing to America's misplaced priorities.

When a person is asked to name his / her role model, he / she is most likely to name a celebrity -- whether it's an actor, athlete, or musician. While it's a role some of them take seriously, it's not necessarily a role they should take on in the first place. That's because a role model is someone you interact with on a regular basis. A role model is someone who knows and supports your interests ... and, even more important, has your best interests at heart. A role model is someone who not only enriches your life, but also makes positive contributions to society. A role model isn't likely to be seen on television or heard on the radio because he / she is right in front of you: parents, relatives, neighbors, teachers, clergy, or even fellow peers.

Many years ago, Charles Barkley appeared in a Nike commercial, telling the world he isn't paid to be a role model. While his point is well-taken, people look to celebrities as role models for various reasons. They're seen as the ones who beat the odds to achieve success, blessed with a special talent that brings joy to people's lives. A musician's album is the soundtrack of a person's life at a specific time (e.g., adolescence), an actor's television show is the snapshot of an ideal world (e.g., The Cosby Show), and an athlete's physical feats are a metaphor for unlimited possibilities (e.g., Michael Jordan). In other words, these celebrities have what we want: the ability to make one dream of a better life ... and inspiring one to turn that dream into reality.

Speaking of life, people also idolize celebrities because they're perceived as being larger than life. They lead extravagant lives in their condominiums and mansions, throwing exclusive parties and hanging out with industry power players. They can afford the best of everything, traveling to places and doing things the average person can only dream about. Furthermore, their faces are plastered on magazine covers and advertising billboards, perpetuating a lifestyle of excess and selling that image to everyday folks. All of these things may be good ... but they come at a price.

Just as fame and fortune come along with being a celebrity, so does a loss of privacy. Everyday activities and special occasions become "media events" -- which was the case when Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, were on a date in Paris in 1997. They were enjoying an evening of each other's company when the paparazzi started harassing them, which set off a car chase ... and ultimately led to their deaths in a car crash. (According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, paprazzi are freelance photographers who aggressively pursue celebrities for the sake of taking candid pictures.) A far less tragic example of a "media event" is the wedding of actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

When the couple announced their nuptial plans in 2000, they surprised many people by revealing an unorthodox method of media coverage for the ceremony. Instead of having to worry about paparazzi crashing their wedding, they sold the photos to a British publication, OK! Magazine, for approximately $1 million. This can be viewed two ways: they beat the paparazzi at their own game, taking whatever money the photographers would've made and keeping it for themselves ... or it was a publicity stunt that turned a private affair into a public spectacle, for it didn't deter the media from covering the event -- which is what they may have wanted all along.

Contrary to popular belief, celebrities are no different from the people who admire them. Instead of putting them on a pedestal to worship, remember that they're human beings with character flaws ... and while they may embody an image of perfection, know that they're far from perfect. By no means are celebrities and role models mutually exclusive entities, because while the former play a role in shaping the media, the latter are a source of inspiration -- nothing more, nothing less. Understanding the difference between these two groups of people will help one see the truly important things in life. With any luck, fame and fortune aren't at the top of the list.