im a celebrity...get me out of here

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a very aught-like phenomenon: the cult of celebrity.

There is no clearer metaphor for the concept of being a celebrity than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You work hard to chase your dream and achieve a career for yourself by making your name known to the masses of the universe.

Then when you've grabbed that star and become a regular fixture in the flash bulb of the press' cameras, how does the public honor your tireless toil and efforts? They throw you down on a sidewalk and walk all over you.

In the Aughts, however, a new celebrity oozed out of the primordial muck. A celebrity that still suffered the slings and arrows of the tabloid press and a complete loss of the right to privacy, but achieved their stardom by simply cutting out all that pesky hard work and tireless effort nonsense. These are the celebrities who became famous by simply because they were famous.

It's a dream come true for everybody like myself that utterly, utterly hates reality television. Heidi Pratt had to be rushed to the hospital for being "tortured" on the reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.

First, who decided that Spencer and Heidi Pratt would be called "Speidi?" It sounds like the nickname for Spider-Man, only misspelled. Most likely it's the working of a really bad publicist who wants them to be the next "Brangelina" or "Bennifer" or something like that.

Second, given the problems the couple has already had with NBC regarding this show (like quitting and then coming back), this sounds like a ploy to not actually do anything while collecting a paycheck (something they got ample practice with in The Hills).

I would also like to add that it's probably even worse torture for the viewer to simply watch them on television than anything NBC put Heidi through.

Part of me is pleased that a federal court judge told the former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to stay put when NBC asked him to join their latest celebrity grovel-fest.

He's continuing to grab any media time he can long after the media forgot how to pronounce his last name by promoting the new I'm a Celebrity...Get Me a New Agent Out of Here. And despite my convictions to the contrary, another part of me wishes he would get more.

Mind you, this is the very dark part of me that giggles when elderly people fall and wishes there was a semi-pro "Scarin' Babies League."