Stardumb

A good article by David Skinner over at The Weekly Standard.

But not all celebrities came out in protest. In an unusual wrinkle among the footnotes of who did and did not support the American-led war against Saddam's regime, a remarkable group of great athletes stood behind the president and the American cause in Iraq. Thus athletes came to represent--albeit very quietly, which seems appropriate--not only the pro-war opinion, but mainstream America. And Hollywood and music celebrities came to represent an oppositionist culture fueled by anti-Bush venom and peopled by the anti-American fringe. The same week that Michael Moore accused the president of the United States of fabricating a grievance with Saddam on stage at the Oscars (before a huge international television audience), Tiger Woods without any to-do posted a statement of support for the president on his website. The two men were more or less opposing archetypes of the American celebrity in wartime. The content of their politics were as different as their style.
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It may be unimportant, but it is certainly interesting to ask why. Why stagehounds and screen stars but not gridiron greats or baseball legends? Let's start with the uncontroversial assertion that one's profession informs one's worldview.

Skinner offers a variety of interesting reasons why this is so, and i can't argue with any of them. However, i do wish he had explored the implications of one of them in more depth.

Only monarchs know the kind of adoration Hollywood stars enjoy. Meanwhile athletes must constantly defend their bona fides against other contenders. As such, theirs is the more democratic glory. Anyone wrongly anointed in sports is quickly given his comeuppance. Anyone wrongly anointed in show business can spend years skipping across the covers of glossy magazines before anyone's the wiser.

There are many talented actors and musicians who never make a living at it, let alone become stars, whereas if you can score twenty points a game against professional basketball players, you're going to enjoy steady employment. There is no one futzing around the local Par 3 course who can play golf like Tiger Woods, whereas if you look hard, you'll find singers as good as Sheryl Crowe or actors as good as Tim Robbins who can barely make ends meet.

Quite simply, many stars lap up public acclaim while knowing that they are somewhat undeserving. Moreover, fame is often purchased at a high price in terms of integrity and self-respect: Young performers must woo and placate some pretty slimy characters to catch a break. Those are non-trivial facts for one's psyche to process.

An interesting question is why Hollywood has become so monolithic in its opposition to mainstream values. Why is the music business so generally subversive? These attitudes go beyond performers and permeate the offices, studios, and backrooms.