If I wasn’t invited, I don’t care

Posted on April 8, 2003 by Gene

I check Google’s brilliant new news page a couple times each day. It’s put together by algorithms which, I assume, take into account such factors as the popularity of news searches.
So, I’m a bit horrified to discover that the marriage of bad boy actor Russell Crowe must be the most important news story to arrive since the war. This piece of news has been front and center on Google News every day for a couple of weeks now, occupying spots in both Entertainment and More Top Stories. Each and every day there is another story about some aspect of Crowe’s wedding. I haven’t seen so much press coverage of a marriage since ol’ Chuck and Di back in the 80s.
What in the world explains the fascination with celebrity dating, weddings, and divorces? And isn’t there someone more… “famous” then Russell Crowe to write about? Who the heck cares? What impact does any of this have on my life, other than to note that another celebrity is off the market and my chances of dating them have gone from infinitesimal to non-existent? How can it be that through the years entire industries have sprung up devoted to chronicling the dating activities of actors, singers, and plain old celebrities making the rounds in Hollywood?
Way down deep, we’re extremely shallow.