Thursday, September 25, 2008

I'm Not A Doctor, But I Play One On TV

I've heard of actors being mistaken for the characters they play on television; for example, actors who play doctors getting asked for help with real medical problems. I'm not sure how people get confused about the difference between an actor and an actual doctor, although I can see how one might form an attachment to an actor playing a certain character. I, for one, was very sad when I found out Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad were not married in real life - they made such a cute TV couple.

Of course people tend to look to celebrities for advice on everything - whom to vote for, what to wear, what causes to support, that sort of thing. So I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that yesterday a reporter asked Michael Douglas about the financial crisis on Wall Street. The reporter actually referred to Michael as "Gordon", a character he played in the film "Wall Street" twenty years ago. Aren't you glad there are such intelligent people working for the press?

I'm not quite sure why we place such stock in the ramblings of celebrities anyway. Does it really make sense to take the environmental advice of someone who lives in a 2 million square foot mansion, flies in a private jet, and probably uses a billion watts of electricity every month? Or to take advice about parenthood from someone who has a nanny for each of their children? Or to take political advice from someone who really thinks President Bush is too dumb to tie his shoes, and yet smart enough to have orchestrated the entire 9/11 terrorist plot?

Sometimes I think we would all be better off if we permanently shipped the celebrities to those private islands they like to frequent. But then, if we got rid of celebrities, who would be left for me to make fun of?

1 comment:

foculbrown said...

We would find someone else to make fun of...politicians, criminals, and/or British royalty come to mind.

It is funny when celebrities think that we as "normal" people care what they think.