Recently I’ve noticed a trend; there’s this fascination with people other than ourselves, outside the realm of our own lives. People have become concerned with the lives of the rich and famous, the known and wealthy merchandizers of today’s social hierarchy. People like Paris Hilton and Kate Middleton are plastered on magazines and across headlines. What just makes their lives so much more interesting? They seem to all be beautiful and perfect people, aside from the occasional DUI or coke bust, yet these people are our idols. Hilton has her own line of perfume. Charlie Sheen has a new comedy tour that is sold out, besides the fact that reading his Tweets is also incredibly entertaining, and free! But what happened to the respectable celebrity, like the Elizabeth Taylor? She was an accomplished movie star, with seven, but she was talented, right? She’s in a whole different league than people like Hilton or. Some people seem to think she deserves her fame more than reality starlets and F-list actors. This might not even be something worthwhile to consider. We should all recognize that there are differences between Paris Hilton and Elizabeth Taylor, between James Dean and Charlie Sheen. It’s important to understand Taylor was a talented actress with a passion for men, and Paris Hilton is merely a rich heiress with a bunch of great lawyers. Dean, who starred in just three films before his untimely death, was and still is a Hollywood icon. Sheen, a mildly talented actor with a successful career, has been a train wreck of late. He’s taken his rants and Tweeting to the extreme — he’s addicted to our attention. It isn’t so much that people like Hilton and Sheen make us laugh at their stupidity, it’s the fact that we continue to watch and support them. We feed their empire of power and only make them hungrier for more. All that  should be recognized is that there is a difference between these two types of people.    There are people trained and meant to bring tears to our eyes, tears full of respect and wonder and there are people who make us appreciate our own lives by laughing at the incredulity of theirs. Clearly there are different kinds — the designated actors, the reality stars, and then public personas. It’s all what you make of them really, our own selves, this popular culture, is what feeds and creates these people.