IN THE eyes of Hollywood, nothing is quite as tragic as the death of one of its young stars. Heath Ledger died at the age of 28 last week from causes still unknown. But as soon as the story hit the Internet, the media launched into its usual feeding frenzy. The cause of death was immediately assumed to be everything from sleeping pills to prescription drugs, to possible illegal substances found on a rolled up $20 bill. The death itself was rumored to be everything from an accidental overdose to suicide. Unfortunately, the complete unraveling of an individual's personal life always seems to occur in cases such as this. Oftentimes, this leads to the realization of substance abuse problems that were previously unknown and, more importantly, unreported. Sadly, popular culture has become completely obsessed with the personal trials and tribulations of its darling celebrities. Now, I would be lying if I said Perezhilton.com is not one of my guilty pleasures. But all of the pleasure-seeking aside, this obsession with celebrities and their substance abuse only fuels a cycle of destruction in Hollywood.
One only need look to the biggest celebrity stories of recent years to notice this disturbing trend: Anna Nicole Smith's death after overdosing on prescription drugs, DUIs for everyone from Mel Gibson to Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears's insane antics and court-ordered drug testing, Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss caught on tape smoking crack and snorting cocaine, and the list goes on and on. Just a couple of weeks ago, a new show appeared on VH1 called "Celebrity Rehab," in which (extremely marginal) celebrities fight their addictions together on television. The word "rehab" was probably mentioned more than any other this past year in celebrity news, and our acceptance of this lifestyle only continues to grow.
Heath Ledger's death was surprising, but once the details began to fall into place, it started to sound just like any other True Hollywood Story. And it's not that this is new; Hollywood has a long history of celebrity substance abuse. But the general ambivalence towards the problem is strange. Instead of feeling shocked and disgusted by train-wrecks like Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse, we are mesmerized. Instead of feeling sympathy towards or concern for the same women, we start Web sites making bets on the days they will die. It is sick how we delight in the downfall of the same people we put on pedestals, but it is even sicker how the celebrities themselves don't seem to care.
Heath Ledger's death is tragic in part because it is so cliché. We come to expect, even to enjoy, this sort of titillating news, just as we enjoyed Paris Hilton's jail sentence and Lindsay Lohan's drunken car crash. The only difference between those girls and Ledger is that they were the lucky ones.
With shows like "Celebrity Rehab," we don't watch because we want to see these celebrities reform their naughty ways. We watch because we want to see the pain associated with their addictions, and although we might not often admit it, we want to see them fail. One of the celebrities on the show, Jessica Sierra (a former American Idol contestant), fell off the bandwagon and was arrested for a second time sometime between filming ended and the show aired. Of course, Perezhilton.com immediately picked up the story, and her relapse was mocked with general cruelty.
It is these incidents that show how fickle we are as consumers of popular culture. While we blast celebrities for their substance abuse, we seem to care about them only when they fall down. While we constantly complain about why Britney Spears won't just get help (or at least, I do), we eat up her wild adventures. We need to make a decision as the consumers of all that is celebrity trash. Either we need to embrace the train-wreck or destroy it, because right now, lives are on the line. We need to ask ourselves, would we still watch all those horrible VH1 shows like "The Surreal Life" and "Celebrity Fit Club" if there weren't a meltdown almost every episode? Would we continue to watch shows like "The Real World," "Flavor of Love" or "A Shot at Love" if alcohol weren't involved at all? The answer, of course, is no.
Lindsay Huggins is a Cavalier Daily Opinion editor.She can be reached at lhuggins@cavalierdaily.com.
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