Mini-Project #3 -Francesca Galarus

Okay, so this experiment did exactly what it was supposed to do – proved me wrong. I definitely didn’t think I was a person to constantly mention stars’ names or their current goings-on, but apparently - I am. Maybe this past weekend was a fluke, but my log was filled with a significant amount of celebrity talk.

I don’t consider myself a regular tabloid-reader, but on Saturday when I went grocery shopping with my roommate, the line was particularly long so I picked up “US Weekly” and handed Abby “OK!” We got down to business looking for the best stuff which we consider fat pictures, wardrobe malfunction pictures and anything about Lindsay Lohan. Flipping through our magazines, we shared tidbits of the best information. Some of the lines that actually came out of my mouth – “Look at how good she looks.” “Look at how fat she got.” “I hate her.” “I love her.” And “Who’s that?”

My strong feelings towards these people are unwarranted (I don’t know them) but I can’t help but have my favorites and I feel like I have the right to pick on people who I can’t stand (ahem, Hillary Duff). But, for me, worse than hating them is not knowing who they are. When some D-list reality-show star or unknown country singer pops up in my tabloid, I really get pissed. These are people that just take up space and I don’t care about them or what they are doing. Frankly, I’d rather see Lindsay clipping her toenails.

Abby and I continued to swap “useful information” until we reached the front of the line, at which point we contemplated adding one or both of the tabloids to the pile of groceries. “No, we can’t,” Abby said, “We’ll be done reading it in five minutes; you probably already got all the juicy stuff.” “You’re right,” I conceded, “Maybe if we were going to lay out today.”

Later on that night, while at work, a celebrity name came up once again. It was one of more pervasive names in stardom, someone who seems to come up no matter what you’re talking about. Anyway, considering the extenuating circumstances of her life right now with the trial and jail sentence, I am slightly less embarrassed to admit that I was the one to bring up Paris Hilton at the host stand. This sparked a significant conversation that continued throughout the night in between checking coats and seating guests. The basic gist was – it probably won’t happen, but wouldn’t it be cool?

Finally, before I admit to much more, I will say this. I watch E! Entertainment Television more often than I watch, let’s say, CNN or any other “real news” channel…combined. It seems like the only thing on in the middle of the day, which is when I typically turn on my TV. “The Soup” and “Fabulous Life of…” are my break after class and before work. It provides mindless entertainment and more trivia than I would care to know, which I usually share with Abby who is one of my friends that is truly interested.

So, yes, I talked about celebrities, read about celebrities and watched celebrities all in one day. Saturday was enough of a log for me; I didn’t want to embarrass myself by recording Sunday as well, because I’m guessing it wasn’t much better. I suppose that if I had really thought about how much I feed my celebrity habit, I would have had a guess that was reasonably close, but I didn’t give it much thought before I made my log, so the results gave me a little dose of reality.