CELEBRITY OBSESSION

What is this obsession that we commoners have with celebrities? I have been wondering about this for some time.


There are more pictures of Shilpa Shetty's wedding than about 26/11 in the last few days. Btw, can anyone name her last movie? There are more pics / articles of Rakhi Sawant, AB, SRK compared to everyone else combined.


This time, I had a hands-on experience of this manic behavior.


S and I are in LA and SFO for the Thanksgiving week and are visiting the various tourist spots in the vicinity. When at Alcatraz, I could see visitors sit on the toilet of the cell occupied by Robert "Birdman of Alcatraz" Stroud and click pictures. I could see others enter the cells of this jail and act as if they are prisoners of this cell and get some pictures clicked. This is probably the only time (i sincerely hope) that ppl pay to go to jail.


Then we were in Hollywood - BelAir - Beverly Hills and taking a guided tour of the area when the tour guide was pointing to different houses and identifying the celebrity who currently stays (or previously stayed) in those mansions. Not even 5-10% of those house could be seen due to the huge screening trees around the homes. But still, tourists were clicking their way to glory. Even worse, they even were clicking pictures of some parks where some celebs were caught breaking the law. There was no proof that these celebs actually stayed there or the crimes were actually broken there. But, the obsession towards celebs and their star studded lives made these ppl believe anything and everything narrated by the tour guide.


This reminds me of one funny incident that my uncle went through in Mumbai many years ago. For someone who came from a very small town and was visiting Mumbai for a month, he took the Mumbai Darshan bus. The biggest attraction of this bus ride was to see bollywood star's homes.


The guide showed a bungalow as AB's home. Next week, his wife and kids came to Mumbai and my uncle took them in the same bus with the same tour guide. This time, the guide showed an entirely different house as AB's home. My uncle immediately caught him red-handed and questioned him in front of the entire tourist group -- Hey, last week you showed me a different home as AB's home. This week you are showing me something new. Whats going on? The guide was smart -- ShaaNa, as they are called in Mumbai. He coolly replied -- AB moved over the weekend.