Letters & Opinion
What’s the point?: Celebrity sightings
The Pointer
kleb524@uwsp.edu
“So maybe we should write our phone numbers down and give them to him.”
I actually heard this statement come out of a late-teen-early-20-something’s mouth last Wednesday when actor Adam Brody was on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus. Of course when I heard this I began to think, “Why, oh, why, would you even bother?”
It seems to me that the more I look around me when celebrities are at all in the vicinity, the more I wonder why I showed up.
Over the past-month-and-a-half, I have been fortunate enough to “see” a number of famous people. Brody and Joy Bryant were the first two that I have actually talked to, but I have been within the same building as more than a dozen celebrities, including members of the Eagles, Robin Williams and Kathy Griffin.
As I looked around me at all of these outings, I spotted people, mostly females, almost leaping from their seats in hopes that the famous person(s) would notice. Some, especially those at the rally on campus with Brody, were even waiting for him after the performance. Being me, I actually felt embarrassed for the optimistic.
I paid my money to see most of these people, and that is fine; that is what is supposed to happen. But I just cannot wrap my brain around why people get so excited to see someone that they begin to convulse and even cry. What baffled me so much was that I saw one girl literally in a complete meltdown. It isn’t like Brody did anything extraordinary. He is an actor who happened to have been on a popular television show. Big whoopty-doo! Call me uncool, but I am more impressed to meet someone who battled cancer and won, or someone who backpacked around the world. To me, those are the people who have truly interesting stories.
Don’t get me wrong, I watch television and have my favorite actors and actresses. I would be thrilled to meet and have a great conversation with them. Obviously, by the number of celebrities I have seen lately, I spend money to see these people. However, I do not want their first impression of me to be a weeping mess. I really I don’t think anyone would want my number then.
