# 3 – Americans’ relationships to celebrities

It seems, at this very second, that many celebrities are celebrated so much more after they die. Take Elvis for instance. At Graceland, you fail to see mention of his drug habits or the tragic story of how he died, but you do hear of Elvis the lover, the musician, the philanthropist, who bought about a dozen Cadillacs for different friends and family members. In the same instance, at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, even though Clinton is still alive, you hear of all the glories of his presidency, the human rights goals attained during his time, and plenty of funny stories of the greatness of his and Hillary’s relationship. You hear nothing of scandal, nothing of Lewinsky, nothing of impeachment. The same is with Michael Jackson… the saint, the pop god, not the one who has been the butt of jokes for years concerning child molestation.

It seems there’s this odd pressure to look back in only joy on certain times in our lives and other’s lives. We can’t express regret really. It’s unfashionable… and undesirable. We feel bad saying anything negative at a funeral, so it doesn’t happen. It’s like what Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard says in his song “Styrofoam plates” in reference to a bad father who passed away… “Just because he was a bastard in life don’t mean he wasn’t a bastard in death.”

Getting back to celebrities in America, it seems that we have a multiplicity of opinions, in general, when we judge their actions in the world while they are alive. However, there seems to really be one prevailing opinion when they die – heroification. It’s great to celebrate someone’s contributions to the world but probably another to deify them.