A Brush with Fame - Sunday, August 2, 2009, 7:45 AM - Terminal 7 - JFK International Airport
After placing my laptop in the worn gray bin, I reached down to remove my shoes paying little attention to the conversation in front of me. As I looked up to walk through the metal detector, I experienced my first up-close celebrity sighting since coming to New York City over two years ago.
And so there he was, King Leonidas himself.
I have walked to work passing sets with Cameron Diaz, Adam Sandler, and Tobey McGuire. I worked for one year a block from Tribeca Grill which is co-owned by Robert DeNiro and likely frequented by famous personalities; at least a friend claims to have recently seen Justin Timberlake dining there.
But until now, either through my lack of proactive star seeking or pure serendipity, I had not randomly stumbled upon any celebrities other than briefly glimpsing Cherry Jones outside of Booth Theater greeting the audience after a showing of "Faith Healer." Yet there he was, Gerard Butler, jovially chatting with the TSA agents. However, this time clothed in modern casual attire, a leather jacket and going for the sexy scruff look (which I'm guessing for him probably works). After looking up Mr. Gerard Butler on IMDB was also floored to discover he was the man behind the mask in the 2004 cinematic rendition of The Phantom of the Opera.
More than anything, this event led me to ponder a series of questions while waiting to board the plane:
What is it about human nature that drives this fascination with celebrity and spurs related informational outlets such as Access Hollywood, TMZ, and Gawker.com? Is there an underlying evolutionary rationale, something that spurs fans to do crazy things such as jump into pools of the unthinkable (think Slumdog Millionaire) for an autograph? Are celebrities exemplars for society that pave the way for civilizations progress into the future? Do we think success and fame may fall on us like pixie dust if merely are in the proximity of those who have it? Or do we think that sharing such events with those we know will make us larger in their eyes (hence, I blog about it)? If I had walked through security 60 seconds later, would my life be worse off?
In it's simplest sense, if the purpose of life is happiness (philosophical angle) or survival (evolutionary slant) then some would argue that fame, power and money can help reach either of those ends. The question then is, does an obsession or following of those who possess those things help us to achieve them as well? If so, then in essence we are saying that those with an overabundance of media visibility often by default achieve the status of "role model."
The foundation of this argument is decent enough; it engenders images of young athletes working hard on their basketball technique so they can be like Michael Jordan when they grow up. The fascination with fame can become an intense motivator for hard work and persistence.
Still this causes me to stop and contemplate with concern for three reasons.
First, the underlying assumption is that those who are role models have achieved their success through hard work and perseverance. I don't think that this always the case for inheriting a lot of money, being born into a prominent family, or having the genetic makeup facilitating good looks can lead to celebrity status, but not because of any particular talent or diligence of one's own. Furthermore, those with those traits may for other reasons be less than perfect role models. I'm sure all of us can name a few of those celebrities which we would rather our offspring knew nothing about.
Second, I believe there are diseconomies of scale as admiration (which can spur motivation) moves down the spectrum to fascination and beyond to obsession. Perhaps there is an argument to be made here, but I don't see how owning every Michael Jordan basketball card, wearing a replica of his jersey, dressing like him, eating Wheaties everyday, and frequently traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to some event just to see him and get his autograph helps incrementally motivate someone to work harder to be a better basketball player. In fact, the opportunity cost of lost time which could be invested in developing a skill or talent is increased by this shift to the realm of obsession.
Third, the premise up to now is that celebrities are role models for success. Yet, there are multiple other reasons why people are captivated by or drool over (literally) celebrities. I've heard conversations about what restaurants they eat at, what brand of clothes are they wearing, what kind of car do they drive, etc. Yet, I struggle to see how those questions help us drive toward our end goal of happiness (happy because I wear the same brand as they do?) or survival (i.e does the type of SUV one drives equate to the ritual of animals butting antlers to show signs of strength and consequently pass on those strong genes to the next generation?).
However, the forum is forever open and I welcome those who can enlighten me.
For now, do I feel that because of my airport encounter I am more motivated to work hard to be successful? Not really. Do I want to buy a leather jacket, speak with a Scottish accent, and shave less often? If I were still single maybe I would see if that helped, but in essence I have no newfound desire to do any of those things.
As I see it, in the end, there we were - two guys going through security and headed to wait for our planes to take off to our next destination as we strive to make a buck in this world. One of course has more bucks already, but the other one got a story out of it all...just not exactly sure how much that story's worth.
And Gerard, in the unlikely event that you ever catch wind of this, this is no way any disrespect to you. In fact, if you ever need an escape from the frantic world of the celebrity, my door in New York (well New Jersey actually) is always open. And I promise I won't even take my picture with you or ask for your autograph.
