Apparently money and fame...

...can't buy a person happiness if it's just not there. American society is one that pretty much tells us anything goes and apparently, anything DOES indeed go. Add that fact to a hefty bank account and you end up with a person who can afford to have whatever they want, whenever they want it. Anna Nicole was one person who took that mix and pushed it to the ultimate end...a death shrouded in curiosity and assurance that she will be remembered with infamy.

Anna Nicole was a caricature of the most spoiled of American's...and with Anna, all of the most obvious signs were exagerated. Apparently she was surrounded with people who would never tell her, "No." So, we were left with a glaring example of what you get when you cater to a person's every whim, whether that is good for them or not. Obviously, people were not meant to have every single urge they have satisfied. But far too many act as if it's their birthright. They protest whatever the cause du jour and uphold their own right to do as they please.

We watch the insanity that ensues when people are lucky enough to have incredible fame and fortune and call it Celebrity News or watch it on one of a hundred cable programs that makes stars out of those whom they choose. The press has the power to make any person a star...simply by camping on their front yard. They dictate what we should hear and how we should hear it. Then they actually tell us that this story is the most popular and that person is the sexiest. Not the sexiest in Hollywood...oh no. The sexiest in the entire world.

Hollywood must be running low on stars, they seem to want to create more of them. They use shows like American Idol as an assembly line for stars and the criteria for being a star gets lowered in every single way that it can be lowered. Not only are the requisites dreadfully low, some become stars merely because they have done something bad, stupid or evil. A nut can ensure themselves a place in history by committing the most heinous of crimes. The press will flock to catch a soundbite from the most evil of them all. Just where would they stop? What act is so very low and despicable that the media would stay away...and refuse to make a star out of some homicidal nut?

For our entertainment we can watch an over zealous reporter set up internet predators and watch them get arrested. Does this really help us? Or does is soften future blows a little bit by desensitizing us all to the serious crime of child exploitation? We're also entertained by those with the lowest of IQ's, the people who appear on such freak shows as Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. Proclaim the President guilty of war crimes and guarantee yourself all the publicity that you desire. To show what passes for entertainment now, just watch how many people laugh at a man who gets smacked somehow...right where his momma don't kiss. That is a staple of America's Funniest...every week you can see another man who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Why is that funny? I would think that would hurt a LOT. But we laugh at it every single time they show it and there are more and more of those ball breakers on video every week. What the hell are we watching that a guy getting smacked in the nuts is considered entertainment?

Where are all of the heroes? Isn't anyone doing something good for the world? Of course, but good behavior doesn't make the headlines. It would have to be cloaked with some sort of gimmick, like the subway hero who recently had his 15 minutes. Take any tragedy and add a public relations expert...and you have a star. And people who are literally famous for being famous...like Anna Nicole. She and those like her don't march for any cause but they reap the benefits of those who have. Having nothing positive to report, the media reported on her negative behavior. There was nothing that woman could have done to make the media stop paying attention. She was rewarded with publicity and more interviews whenever her behavior took another turn for the worse. All for a woman who allowed telvision cameras in her home and allowed herself to be filmed lying supine on her couch, eating Fritos or some such snack food. If that's her behavior on television, what's her behavior off of it like? You'd almost think that she would want to be doing something productive with her time in front of the world, rather than laying around her house catering to every urge she had...and that's exactly what she did. She didn't even TRY to do something positive for the cameras, hell...she didn't even SIT UP for them.

So, I think what we saw was pretty much what she was, a sad little person who became famous without having to do anything, in any way, positive. And she would be assured of publicity, even though most of it encouraged snickers behind her back.

In the meantime, the masses are watching this...assuming that this behavior or that behavior is OK, or at least not so taboo as it once was. And when they feel the need to admire someone, who would they admire? To hear the media, there's nothing out there to admire...everyone is pretty much nuts and watch this video of a man getting a ball in the crotch. With fame and fortune comes oppotunity to make your mark on something positive and that's a good thing for the youth to see. And fame does indeed make you sort of responsible for your own behavior and you can say , "I never wanted to be a role model!" but you are, in reality, a role model simply by being famous. They don't have to like it, just by accepting the lime-light you accept the fact that it isn't very specific as to where and when it shines on you. So, just to be on the safe side, wouldn't you think that someone would be smart enough to NOT be so self indulgent? Isn't there a normal person who has fame and fortune? Apparently not.

And now...looking back, I'm absolutely positive that the major players in Anna's life will have book deals with options to turn Anna into fodder for the movie of the week. What an amazing story it is. But it's amazing for all of the wrong reasons...she was the epitome of self indulgence and an example to the rest of us what can happen if you are able to gratify every single urge that you have. But...what do you expect when even royalty can't keep from tending to a few urges that they'd rather not share with their subjects? Anna's story will be on some cable channel after the Betty Broderick story and we'll sit back, watch and shake our heads. And somewhere, a new story is in the making. And people are lining up all over the world to be in the lime-light. I don't know why they do that, there just seems to be too much exposure required and I'd rather not have that particular scrutiny in my life. Most of us try to avoid living a movie of the week type existence, and it's almost like Anna knew she would live a movie of the week-type life.

Now we get to see what happens to her daughter....she will most certainly be famous, infamous or crazy...you can't tell this early. That kid has so much to overcome. I can think of half a billion hurdles right now. Who gets to raise her? One of the people who couldn't do a thing to help Anna? Oh goodie. And it might not take very long before someone tries to make more money off of that child...even the Crocodile Hunter's kid wasn't untouched by greed. She was paraded around memorial services all over the world. This Anna story will be good for years of publicity.

Don't you wonder who's going to be next? What crazy celebrity is currently living a movie of the week-type life? Oh yeah, it's all of them. I can't wait to see who we throw to the wolves next. We're only in February when it comes to the "News Stories of The Year 2007" I say we talk about Anna until June. That's lucky for the lady astronaut who wanted to kill her rival, Anna knocked her right off the front pages. Who do you suppose will knock Anna off the front pages? In a world where you can be famous for being a Brady kid in 1970, the options are overwhelming. Fame and infamy are seperated by a very thin line and that line is an easy one to cross over. And apparently, it's quite the spectator sport.