Celebrities represent democratic ideals

  Emilia Hwang If you would like to
encourage Hwang’s celebrity status, send her plenty of fan mail
at

[email protected].

Stop the presses. Ben Affleck touched me. Forget the
presidential race, this is news!

Call me unprofessional. I’m sure you would be, too, if the
most inspirational young filmmaker in the industry touched you.

Lucky for you, he didn’t. So you don’t have to worry
about upsetting journalistic protocol.

Inquiring minds, however, want to know. Therefore, it is my duty
as a reporter, to publicly disseminate information regarding my
soon-to-be-infamous brush with celebrity.

In other words, I have free license to gush. (He touched me and
I will never wash that cardigan again.)

Though working as an entertainment writer gives me the
opportunity to meet countless famous (and even more countless
not-so-famous) actors, writers and directors, the most memorable
moment of my career so far has definitely been interviewing
Ben.

Nervous does not describe the anxiety I felt entering the
hospitality suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. We
were supposed to discuss his latest project, but who knew where
things would go from there?

It was an intimate rendezvous ““ just me and Ben … and
his publicist, a camera crew and a couple other reporters. (Oh, and
Matt Damon was there, too.)

Here is where I redeem whatever shred of professional integrity
I have left. Though I wanted to propel myself onto the blue-eyed
actor as soon as he entered the room, something told me that it
would not be kosher to jump on his back like a salamander before
the interview even started.

OK, believe it or not, I’m usually not such a fanatic.
Perhaps I can blame my celebrity fixation on growing up in Los
Angeles. Temporary insanity is not uncommon among children weaned
on Hollywood culture.

The special status of celebrity, however, is not a phenomenon
contained to the palm-tree-lined boulevards of Southern California.
The art of turning the human being into entertainment has been a
nationwide obsession in the media for decades.

It started in the 1920s with gossip columnist Walter Winchell,
whose rapid-fire style of newscasting captured the interest of
millions of Americans. Both admirers and critics followed his news
reports. Never shy about holding back his opinions, Winchell built
up one of the highest-rated programs in radio history.

In the twenty-first century, however, television newsmagazines
have turned audience fixation onto fame and infamy from the
fictional world of the movies to real life ““ the show that
never ends. With scandal flavoring everything from gossip reports
to news articles, celebrity has become our national religion.

Today, headlines offer tantalizing peeks into an intriguing
world of sex, power, money, and even millionaire matrimonials.

Who can forget the circus that ensued after Fox’s
“Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”

As preposterous as the show’s premise may sound, it still
captured the attention of 23 million viewers. With no consequences,
contemporary viewers enjoy invasion and television voyeurism. The
events that followed a rich guy picking a wife before a national
television audience became more of a spectacle than the television
show itself.

With the country’s attention conveniently focused on Rick
Rockwell and Darva Conger, the couple was instantly propelled into
celebrity status. For Rockwell, his resume of deception included
questionable millionaire status as well as past restraining orders.
And the self-professed (but not really) Gulf War veteran Conger
soon stole the nation’s gaze by posing for Playboy.

When you think about it, the concept of celebrity is one of the
most democratic ideas of our time ““ it puts the spotlight on
people who’ve accomplished absolutely nothing.

Me? My greatest claim to fame is a professional pat on the back
from Ben Affleck.

Let’s put this in contrast with one of Winchell’s
accomplishments. In 1940, he broke the news of President Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s decision to seek an unprecedented third term.
In a less positive example of his journalistic discretion, he also
publically supported the notorious Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

While I won’t be reporting political history, blacklisting
any Communists or digging for gold on national television, I still
enjoy my celebrity-by-association status.

After all, Ben Affleck did touch me, which makes me almost
famous. And what’s left for a fan to do after she has finally
had her fanatical encounter?

Nothing, really, except to write about it.