What is our Fascination with Celebrities?

In my line of business, I speak and meet with celebrities all of the time, or I know someone that knows a celebrity that I may need to reach for a story or an interview, and in some strange way, other people get excited at the thought of me speaking to the ‘celebrity’ (as I put in quotes), but I often times show no excitement, because they truly are people just as we are.  Here today, and may be gone tomorrow.  I often tell the story about the time that I met the late rapper, Tupac Shakur.  I had a huge crush on him, and not because of his music, but because I thought that he was handsome.  In 1993, my chance came to meet Shakur while I was at a convention in Atlanta, Georgia, and anyone that knows me, knows that I am just not one that easily excites, but when the opportunity presented itself to meet him, I froze up, and complimented him on his teeth (which, by the way, was something that my friend never let me live down).  After that, I vowed to never have a star struck moment again, and went back to realizing that though Shakur was a ‘celebrity,’ he still was no different than I was – it was an embarrassing moment to say the least.
So, I have said a mouth full in my initial paragraph, but think about it; remember the time that you were excited over MC Hammer or over Vanilla Ice, it just seemed as if their reigns would never end, but then, all of a sudden, they somehow faded into the sunset, and became irrelevant, something that you could not have fathomed would ever occur for such ‘celebrities’ that were on top of their game within the music genre.  The point is that we sometimes get so engulfed in the success of these people that we really forget to think about the fact that they are really no better than we are.  Why do we care that Madonna is going to adopt another child – as there are many people that adopt children everyday?  Why would someone pay a million dollars of a picture of some celebrity’s baby? We are in a recession, so spending that type of money on a picture seems ridiculous to the laymen, but the reality is that, we as people live for the sensationalism of it all. 
Do we live vicariously through ‘celebrities?’  Do we admire them, not because of what they have, but because of the hope that they inadvertently give to us – the hope that, we, too, can aspire to be just as successful as they are?   What is the real reason that we are so fascinated with celebrities, because what is so important and intricate to remember is that they are only famous because of us –the supporters, the consumers, the fans.  You are the reason that they have been labeled a ‘celebrity,’ so, in essence, you are famous, too.