[Blarg]

Unfortunately, the papparazzi are just reflections of us, kind of like distilled concentrates. There wouldn't be so many of them if there weren't media paying good money to photograph celebrities doing anything, or nothing at all. And they do that because we as a whole really want to see celebrities so very, very much.

At work, I've heard the women go on non-stop for an hour about every last celebrity, and they seem to know everything about them. They really CARE who's dating whom, etc. A lot. The men can be the same way about sports figures sometimes.

Since they can't get a life of their own, they're all thrilled to get into somebody else's. Sad stuff.

But anyway, this papparazzi behavior is not some weird tangential thing out on the borderlines or human behavior or anything. It fits right in at the center of what we care about in life and often make huge emotional investments in -- celebrities. We can't blame them without blaming ourselves. Which I'm sure we're not about to start doing anytime soon.