Mini Project #3 - Gina Carrano

When I first prepared to keep a weekend log of how much time I spent discussing celebrities, I had absolutely no idea what I’d find. I’m not someone who holds most mainstream celebrities—the Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons of the world—in very high regard. Other than the most cursory details that I may hear about on a show like Best Week Ever (which I watch in part because it makes fun of them & their ilk), I have absolutely no idea what’s going on in their lives, nor do I really care to know. However, there are certain celebrities, mainly musicians and athletes, I do like very much, and I suspected that I’d spend a decent amount of time in a given weekend either listening to their music, watching them play on TV, or talking about them. Sure enough, I did, and I even spent a little bit of time talking about those aforementioned “mainstream celebrities,” although in keeping with my habits, any discussion I had about them was mostly making fun of them. I guess I divide celebrities into two categories: people of dubious talent who are often famous just for being famous are the ones I tend not to pay much mind, and people who have a specific talent and/or are famous for something are the ones I do talk about.

On Friday, I went to a Minor League Baseball game, and there was really no talk of celebrities at all, which makes sense since the minor leagues, by definition, are a breeding ground for people who aren’t yet—but might someday be—famous. When I got back to Philly I went out with some friends, and again, there wasn’t much celebrity talk. We criticized the music that was being played at the bar, which led to a conversation about how Journey, Foreigner and ZZ Top constituted the best drinking music ever. We also spent some time talking about the new Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero, with my friend taking the position that Trent Reznor’s best days were behind him and me disagreeing vehemently. But any of the time we did spend discussing celebrities was to discuss their work, not their personal lives. The only time that night a celebrity’s personal life did come up was later that night when my boyfriend and I were watching an episode of Oz, HBO’s now-defunct prison drama and also the best TV show in the history of the universe. The episode we were watching had a female inmate staying at Oz, so we started talking about how Paris Hilton was going to jail, and in the context of Oz, joked around a bit about what gang she would be in, whether she would get whacked or be someone’s bitch, etc.

On Saturday my involvement with celebrity was definitely a lot greater. I spent most of the afternoon just hanging out and listening to music with my boyfriend and his friend, and every so often a general comment about the song we were listening to, or the artist who created it, would come up. The evening is when my celebrity consumption increased, as there was an NBA playoffs doubleheader on TV. Sadly, my defending champion Miami Heat were knocked out of playoffs in the first round but I’m a longtime basketball fan regardless, so we watched the second half of the Cleveland/New Jersey game and all of the Phoenix/San Antonio game. The first game caused some chaos in the house because my boyfriend is a Nets fan, his friend is a Cavs fan, and I’m rooting for the Cavs as well since LeBron James is good friends with my favorite player, Dwayne Wade. After some tense moments on both ends the Nets won, at which point we all had to give it up for Jason Kidd. Since the Suns/Spurs game was on next, we also spent some time talking about how much better of a player we feel Kidd is than Steve Nash. The Spurs/Suns game was very exciting, with many tight plays and lead changes, but at that point we paid less attention because we’d had a few beers and were also listening to music and talking about other things at the same time. But our attention was captured when the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili got punched in the eye; we all sat up straight after that and cheered as Tim Duncan and Ginobili (black eye and all) went on a scoring rampage and the Spurs won. I did try to get them to indulge in a little bit of celebrity gossip about Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, but since they’re guys, they didn’t really have much to say other than that Tony Parker is lucky. I also watched about half of that night’s Yankees game, as I wanted to see how their young rookie pitcher was doing, but that was about it.

Today, Sunday, I barely spent any time talking about celebrities. I went to my friend’s house and had lunch with her and her parents, who were there for Mother’s Day. I hadn’t seen my friend in a while and hadn’t seen her parents in ages, so most of our time was spent catching up on our lives. We did talk about American Idol a bit, but nothing specific, just that it is kind of boring this year. Also, when I called my mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, we talked about the aforementioned rookie Yankees pitcher and how they said during the pregame show that he reads Camus and Nietzsche in the clubhouse, which I find adorable.

Overall, I guess I spent about the amount of time I was expecting discussing, watching or listening to celebrities—without anything to gauge it against, it seems like an average amount of time to me. Often times, I’d have music or a game on in the background when I was doing something else, which I guess is a halfhearted measure of celebrity consumption. And the majority of this time was spent discussing celebrities’ works of talent, which is my preference over gossip about their personal lives.