I watched the documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse today and left with such a feeling of profound sadness of what humans do to one another because of fame.  The violations of privacy on an unspeakable scale, that are thrust upon talented artists.  As if by the presence of their talent, they must surrender any right to a normal life with private moments and ability to walk about their own neighborhoods in the way we all take for granted every day.  Being famous and talented is no gift.  The scale of intrusion into your private and personal life is worth no amount of money.  The people closest, the ones making the money off these often genius artists, may never truly protect or support them because greed is so often at the root of their intentions.   Often they are not allowed to express their true gifts or message or desires, they are puppets in the fame game.

The crowds of fans that gather on their stoops and doorsteps are not different, nor are the news casters and late night talk show hosts that find it hilarious to make jokes about someone when they are hurting or struggling.  What do you hope to gain from spotting that celebrity or making jokes about their pain?  From violating their privacy? From invading their time with their family?  Are you changed at all from the moment you have on your superior little soapbox? Does it make you feel special?  I don’ the get it.  I live in a neighborhood full of celebrities and nothing makes me happier than seeing them able to enjoy a coffee or sit in a park in peace.  They don’t feel the need to lock themselves in a compound away from the world in our neighborhood.  They can just be.  It is pretty much a paparazzi free zone and I love that, as I am sure the celebs do, they deserve to live their life.  The rest of us do.

So often I ‘ ll hear someone say, they chose to be famous, to put themselves in the public eye. Not so.   They chose to use their god given talents and follow their passion in life and that is all.  They never chose to have people they thought cared, manipulate them, they never signed anything giving up their right to take a walk with their kid on Sunday in the park and they certainly never agreed to let thousands of people camp out on their sidewalk and snap pictures of them 24/7.

I plea to everyone out there, don’t buy those hideous tabloids, remove the need for paparazzi.  Don’ the gather on the sidewalks to catch a glimpse.  Support the artists you admire, that move you and make your life happy and full of art, by buying their art not stealing/downloading it, see their films, buy their artwork and give them some privacy.  If we all did these simple things we would find that celebrities, artists, famous folk are just regular people with beautiful gifts to share.