Obsessed with Celebrities

I've been wondering these past few weeks, why are we so obsessed with celebrities? We want to know what they wear, who they are dating, what they are eating, what they do, what they buy, and the list goes on and on. We've essentially created a huge industry for the paparazzi trying to capture photos of celebrities doing everything from taking their kids on walks to taking a crap. Why? Are our lives so mundane and pitiful that we have to obsess over what Brad Pitt eats or where Paris Hilton puked? It's a hard one because I try not to get pulled into all that junk but I sometimes find myself surfing around the Internet just to see how Madonna is wearing her hair nowadays. What do you think?

I think:
I did a quick search on "obsessed with celebrities" on Google and found some interesting hypothesis. One guy writes on Slate.com that it has to do with the human instinct to reproduce, meaning it's all about sex. I found this link on some guy's blog who also gives another reason: social status. There are those who warn about celebrity obsession like Dr. Phil. There's even an article on Irish Health.com that discusses how bad it is for teenagers to get overly-obsessed with celebrities. My own opinion goes back to my high school days. There are just those people who seem to have "it." You know the popular people. Everyone wants to be like them. I think we never really lose that when we "grow up" and that's why we're so obsessed with celebrities. They're popular, have tons of money, and good looks and we want to be like them.

Rocky returns? Pleeease!

Yet another piece of evidence that Hollywood has no creativity left: Rocky returns. It's been fifteen years since the last movie and Sylvester Stallone is now 59 years old. But he's going to write and direct Rocky Balboa, which will begin shooting next year. Interestingly enough, the plot will focus on an aging, widowed Rocky who is reluctant to get back in the ring but does it anyway "just to compete." What do you think?

I think:
This one is almost too easy to criticize so, I'll try to take the high road. I'm just wondering how much this movie is going to cost to make and if it will pay for itself once it lands in theaters. I don't think the demographic everyone is going for these days, the 18-24 year olds, will want to see this movie. Maybe Stallone is trying to capitlize on the aging baby boomers? Maybe he's just bored and needs to do something with his time or else he'll go crazy. One thing I do know, this one will be out on DVD for rental faster than you can say, "Yo, Adrian!"

Vogue Editor Gets Pied by PETA

Anna Wintour, editor of the U.S. edition of Vogue, was struck in the face with a tofu cream pie on Saturday by members of PETA to protest against her support for the use of animal fur by the fashion industry. Wintour was attending the Chloe fashion ready-to-wear show at the Tuileries Gardens in central Paris. She was not hurt by the attack. She was reported to have joked that tofu may be good for the skin. It was the second such attack on the fur supporter by PETA, who in this incident, were upset that Wintour turned down an anti-fur advertisement to replace one that touted fur. What do you tink?

I think:
Vogue and Wintour have the right to not run PETAs ads. The magazine is all about fashion and though it would be a strong icon for not supporting fur in fashion, I don't think it makes the publication look bad for refusing PETAs offer. PETA kind of reminds me of Greenpeace. An organization with a worthy cause but run by some militant radicals. Now, pieing someone in the face is not really the act of guerilla warriors but, some of their protests, by underground Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are: like the time they bombed a Michigan lab. If PETA wants to pie people in the face, fine. As long as the people getting pied don't mind. Seems to me that Wintour is a pretty good sport about it.

CEO Good Ol' Boys Network Still Alive and Well

In any regular job, if you got fired for embellishing on the truth (essentially lying) and it was highly publicized in the news, you'd have a hard time trying to get a new job. But not if you're a high-powered, high tech CEO. Craig Conway, former PeopleSoft CEO, got dismissed from his job by the board of directors in October 2004 for "reckless exaggeration to Wall Street analysts." Then, he received a nice little $18 million severance package after being fired. Yesterday, Salesforce.com announced that it appointed Conway to its board. The Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, Mark Benioff, happens to be an old crony of Conway's from his Oracle days. What do you think?

I think:
Now, I may be biased because I worked for PeopleSoft while Conway was CEO (and during the Oracle hostile takeover), and I also work for Siebel Systems right now (in the midst of the Oracle acquisition) so please forgive me, but I must say that this stinks of some impending personal pissing match. It seems a little too coincidental that Conway was appointed to the Salesforce.com board only 3 weeks after Oracle announced its intentions to acquire Siebel Systems. And Salesforce.com happens to be one of Siebel's biggest competitors in the OnDemand CRM space. With Conway's historical rampage to stamp out Larry Ellison's egotistical hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, it looks to me like this is going to be part deux. It just makes me sick that I'll probably get laid off (like I did before), along with a lot of other good employees, while these guys piss all over us, and rake in the cash. From my perspective, not much has changed regarding corporate governance and CEOs.

Deadly 1918 Flu Virus Brought Back to Life

Yesterday, it was announced that the virus that killed tens of millions of people after World War I has been resurrected in a high-security U.S. lab. Apparently, this was done to combat the growing possible epidemic of avian influenza. Preliminary analysis suggests that this deadly "Spanish flu" virus that rampaged around the world in 1918-19 was itself a strain of bird flu which leapt to humans. Scientists revived the virus by flying to Alaska to take frozen lung tissues from a woman who died of the virus who was buried in permafrost. Then they "rebuilt" the virus at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The scientific community lauds this as ground-breaking research for preventing outbreak of a pandemic yet critics say the risk is too great for the virus to fall into the wrong hands. What do you think?

I think:

I'm all for doing research to protect lives but I guess it's the amazing strength of this virus that scares me. It killed healthy adults within 24 hours back in 1918 and in studies of lab mice, all of the mice that were given the flu virus died. I don't have much confidence in the security of our government based on previous evidence. They have found a link between this virus and the bird flu virus that is affecting Asia right now. I guess that is good, especially if they can create a vaccine. Until then, I'll just hope they can keep it under tight security.