Men (and women) behaving badly

[germdoc]

Exhibit A:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/0...rds/index.html

Exhibit B:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...own/index.html

Exhibit C:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazin...-bed-with-lob/

What do all these people have in common? They are all celebrities of one sort or another who have a sense of entitlement that is off the chart.

It's sad that people who have achieved something feel that the rules most of us learned in kindergarten don't apply to them...

[sweensdv]

Here here, yet we still keep buying their records, go see their movies, buy their jerseys, reelect them and so on and so on......................... None of this type of behavior will ever change as long as the American people keep putting money into these people's pockets!

[Uncle Cracker]

While I am tempted to remember that these people are human beings, I think they should be smart enough to see that their public images serve as a role models. But it also follows that sometimes bad publicity stimulates interest and attention, with their income being a derivative thereof. It makes me wonder how much of this crap is a calculated tactic to garner a bigger piece of the publicity pie.

[Photojosh]

Celebrity has nothing to do with people behaving badly. Witness the lack of civility and decorum in the recent political "debates" (and I use the term loosely) over health care. For that matter, witness previous "debates" over the war in Iraq or any other hot-button issue.

Nobody thinks the rules apply to them. Everyone's opinion and personal needs are more important than the other guy's.

[germdoc]

Celebrity has nothing to do with people behaving badly.

My take on this is that celebrity elevates these folks to a certain status which they feel gives them permission to behave in ways that other people wouldn't dream of. All these folks, talented as they are, depend on people buying their CD's or tickets or voting for them. They get approval on a scale that most of us never experience.

Now, there's an interesting argument to be made that in today's society everyone is "famous" ala Warhol, with our Facebook friends and tweeters and so on.

[Uncle Cracker]

Celebrity has nothing to do with people behaving badly. Witness the lack of civility and decorum in the recent political "debates" (and I use the term loosely) over health care. For that matter, witness previous "debates" over the war in Iraq or any other hot-button issue.

Nobody thinks the rules apply to them. Everyone's opinion and personal needs are more important than the other guy's.

I'm with Jeff on this one. Celebrity can easily bring a sense of entitlement. And celebrity does not necessarily mean in entertainment and sports. Don't you think politicians, business icons and other public figures are celebrities? Their very existence is perpetuated by name recognition, media face time, popular votes at the polls, and dollars at the cash register. I am nobody, so I see no value in making noise in the press or melting down in a public forum, but celebrities of every ilk spend half their lives looking for the nearest camera. It's no accident. Given the opportunity to speak frankly, practically any celebrity would confess its better to be despised than to be forgotten.

[Photojosh]

While I get your point on that. I wasn't so much referring to the guys like Joe Wilson rudely yelling "You lie!" during a speech by the sitting president. I was more thinking of the screaming matches and other low-brow displays at the town-hall meetings or the crazy actions of anti/pro war demonstrators during Bush 2.0's presidency.

The overall level of civility has gone down in recent years. And that's a sad thing to say considering I'm not even old enough to be able to talk about the "good old days". I personally think (for the common man anyway) that it has a lot to do with the stress of tough economic times. People are looking to take their stress out on someone, anyone.

As for the celebrities and politicians? I have no excuse for them. They get paid too much for doing too little real work to get to act the way they do. I can much more easily forgive a guy working 50 hours a week getting mad at a protest or debate than I can some jerk who makes $50 million a year at a sports event or an awards ceremony.

[Ed62]

There was one part of the political story that seemed to jump out at me. "For the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California."

Ed

[LCHIEN]

of the three, Serena was under a lot of stress, the other two really could not balme stress for their actions.
Now, stress is not really an excuse but it is a factor that sometimes makes us do things we know are wrong.
I saw her video apology Monday which was much beter than her statements on Sunday in which she was not necessarily contrite but did not defend herself either. Some might think it (mondays apology) insufficient but i believe she meant it and was sincere. I'm not a big fan of the Williams sisters, either. But they can play tennis!

[Uncle Cracker]

Serena was back to being judgmental in her comments after the doubles match. I don't put much stock in her sincerity in the videotape from earlier in the day. She still acts like tennis owes her a great debt. Tennis owes her nothing. She should try to earn a living like the rest of us (like the line judge was doing, in fact). No class.