This is an excerpt from an article/essay by the writer Augusten
Burroughs in the September issue of Details. It struck me as
pertinent, given the time I've spent staring at Rolling Stone and Q81
lately.

"The Celebrity Crush is a strange thing, indeed, because it actually
feels quite real. As real as any crush you could have on the woman
who works in the office next to yours, the guy you see every morning
on the subway, or your physics teacher. The difference is, a
Celebrity Crush isn't a crush on an actual person. It's emotional
stirrings based solely on the image of a person that has been warped
through the lens of the media. In addition, the Celebrity Crush is
based on something every codependent knows and lives for - the
impossible.

Because here's the problem - the celebrity you love? He doesn't
actually know you exist, let alone who you are as a person. The
problem arises when you think "Well, I can fix that" and decide to
meet the celebrity object of your Celebrity Crush - hoping the many
months of intense feeling you have experienced will show in your eyes
and, like a lighthouse on a dark and rocky cliff, send a signal
straight to his heart: I am your safe harbor, I am your love, follow
my light.

But what the celebrity sees in your eyes is CRAZY. Nothing more,
just CRAZY. And CRAZY has a distinct look: intense focus, melting
love, panic, euphoria, need. All communicated with the clarity of a
text message and in the space of an instant. It is a mathematical
certainty that your celebrity will want you only to die. Because you
will have transformed from a person with an innocent Celebrity Crush
into a stalker, an actual criminal, a fully authorized loser."


I liked this essay. It reflected a lot of what I've been thinking
lately about the current fashion of celebrity obsession in this
culture, and the ways in which is can be considered a form of mental
illness. Given that there's only been one 'celebrity' in the past
twenty years who I would obsess over, and that's someone who has not
been particularly 'famous' for the past ten, I'm less embarassed by
my Celebrity Crush than I might otherwise be.