Why should I care about celebrities? For that matter, why should any of us? Celebrities are fascinating because they live in a parallel universe—one that looks and feels just like ours yet is light-years beyond our reach. Many American suffer from "celebrity worship syndrome." It's an unhealthy interest in the lives of the rich and fabulous. According to the researchers, about a third of us have it to some degree. In fact, over the past few years, a wealth of academic literature has cashed in on our relationships with the stars.
Fans used to be lumped into two distinct groups. The first were harmless admirers who enjoyed their celebrity's talents from afar. The second group of fans were the obsessive letter writers and the stalkers. Why the fascination? Why do we care about the personal lives of people we've never met?
Social psychologists agree that the reasons are complex, but some issues seem to recur.
1. One is that we're bored, and living through movie stars is a way of alleviating that boredom.
2. Another is that we're searching for identity, the evidence for which is that teenagers usually score highest on celebrity worship syndrome.
3. Social fragmentation: as family and community values are crushed by individualism and the omnipresent media, perhaps fantasy relationships are becoming easier to form than real ones.
4. Fame is the new religion, and celebrities our gods. Psychological research lends some weight to this theory: the more a person subscribes to a formal, institutionalized religion, the less likely they are to worship a celebrity.
5. Gossip - whether about family, friends, neighbors or celebrities - still plays an important role in cementing social bonds and improving an individual's status within a group.
6. Evolution - it makes sense for us to copy high-status individuals. Among our ancestors, people with high status tended to reproduce more, so copying their techniques was a way of improving our own fitness.
Which brings us to our own personal appearance. We are obsessed with looking trim and fit just like our celebrity idols. The beauty bias is well-known. We all pay more attention to good-looking people. Throughout human history we've always idolized people more successful and beautiful than ourselves.
Models, musicians, actors and singers all fall into the same category when it comes to weight loss. How do you lose those extra pounds when you're preparing to go on tour, need to be on the red carpet, or are flying to meet a photographer in some exotic location?
Many Stars are quick to share their diet secrets:
KIRSTIE ALLEY revealed how at her heaviest she demolished up to an astonishing 28,000 calories a day. Kirstie now eats healthily — around 1,500-2,000 calories a day.
RENEE ZELLWEGER: for both Bridget Jones films Renee consumed 4,780 calories a day for three months, eating 20 doughnuts a day, battered beef, fast-food burgers, chips and shakes as well as pizza and peanut butter. After the first film, she embarked on the Atkins diet. Now the 5ft 5 inch star maintains her figure on tuna, cold meats, dressing-free salads and raw vegetables.
LIZ HURLEY: In the past, Liz has admitted to ‘eating very little breakfast, not too much more lunch. Then tiny little snacks in the day, such as a banana or six raisins. The only meal I have is dinner’.
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