Mini-Project #3 - Alissa Harris

It was a weird experience keeping a log of how often I talk about celebrities, especially because before this project, I didn't think that I was too preoccupied with fame or celebrities at all. I'm not one of those people who endlessly troll the internet looking for gossip, I don't have a subscription to 'US Weekly', and I personally could care less what two hot-at-the-moment celebrities have been pawing at each other in public. However, after keeping a log for only one weekend, I was proven wrong: even though I don't necessarily care about the notion of fame or the whole world of celebrity gossip, I sure as hell managed to spend a lot of time talking about them with friends and family. Perhaps I've become the person I hate (the one who has nothing else to talk about but what celebrities are up to), but it seems almost inevitable that at one point in any conversation, the talk with undoubtedly turn to celebrities.

As it just so happens, I spent this weekend with a couple of friends from Ohio who I don't see that often and we planned to go see a concert that was later cancelled due to unforseen events (My Chemical Romance, who cancelled their show claiming the entire band got food poisoning from eating chicken wings at 'Hooters', honestly). We spent most of our time together catching up and discussing what had been happening in our individual lives since we last got together, almost eight months ago. However, after an hour or two, the friend gossip and personal storytelling got old and we turned to another topic: celebrities. Neither of them are particularly preoccupied with mainstream celebrity gossip - and, as previously mentioned, neither am I - so we tended to talk more about musicians and what was going on with our favorite bands. Nothing particularly surprised me about this exchange because I know that my friends are obsessed with music (as am I), so it's normal to discuss what's new with the bands we like and exchange industry gossip and what not, so I knew going into our time together that such topics would come up.

When I was gathered with two of my close friends on Saturday afternoon for my friend Katie's little brother's first communion party, I was surprised that the topics of celebrities and fame rarely came up in conversation. We tended to talk more about school (both of them had recently gotten out of school for the summer, while I lamented being stuck here for another month) and mutual friends than about celebrities. We did watch 'Best Week Ever' on VH1 while we were there though (what can I say? Kids' parties get boring!) and so we would make snarky remarks while watching the show, so even this close gathering of friends involved some talk of celebrities.

Surprisingly, I talked about fame and celebrities quite a bit with my mother, or rather she told me about scandalous gossip she had heard, as she's an avid gossip rag reader while I tend to be quite oblivious to such things. While driving me back to school on Sunday night, my mother made sure to mention that she thought Britney Spears was looking much better, how she felt bad for Alec Baldwin, and how she hopes Brad Pitt breaks Angelina Jolie's heart because she's a "tramp" who's "not worthy of him." I was worried because before I came to college, my mom tended to be more concerned with work and household chores rather than famous people, but she said that now she has a lot of extra time on her hands, so she'll watch 'Entertainment Tonight' and lots of shows on E! for fun, thus enabling her to absorb all of this gossip. It's one thing to hear about celebrities from your friends, as most younger people tend to be obsessed with pop culture in one way or another, but it's weird to hear about it from your mother, or at least it was for me.

In conclusion, you can see from the evidence above that talking about celebrities isn't always something you plan or expect to happen, sometimes it's just a topic that's there when there's little else to talk about. Everyone loves a good bit of gossip (and what's better than hearing gossip? Spreading it!) so talking about celebrities is almost as natural as talking about what's going on with your friends.