When There Is A Different Standard

This will not be one of my more popular posts - and ordinarily it would fly under my radar and I wouldn't even mention it - but I'm sick of the headlines already and no one else seems to be saying it so I will.
Jessica Simpson recently made an appearance at the Radio 99.9 Kiss Country's annual Chili Cookoff in Pembroke Pines, Florida and the celebrity press was immediately on fire with reports that she looks like she has gained a noticable amount of weight. Opinions differ on whether it is real wight gain or the clothes she was wearing, but it seems more likely that it is both: she has gained some weight and the clothes she was wearing were certainly not the type to disguise this fact. Various celebrities have jumped to Simpson's defense with the usual "size doesn't matter" arguments but the one that tipped the scales for me (sorry, I couldn't resist) was Simpson sister Ashlee who complained, "All women come in different shapes, sizes, and forms and just because you're a celebrity, there shouldn't be a different standard."
Actually, yes there should be. Celebrities are famous for a reason and if that reason is appearance then a significant change in appearance warrants headlines, at least in the celebrity press. Sorry for those like Simpson who would like to believe otherwise, but Jessica Simpson's claim to fame is her body. Both her music and acting careers have routinely bombed and she is really only famous because a large number of people consider her to be hot. That being the case, her weight gain is celebrity news.
Face it, if you or I put on a lousy performance at a karaoke bar, no one is going to care except for those who had to listen to it. If, on the other hand, some famous singer were to butcher the same performance, it would be news. There is a different standard for celebrities based on why they are celebrities. That's reality. Whining about it isn't going to change it.

How To Kill A Career

Bijou Phillips, one of the lesser known celebrities associated with Scientology, gave an interview recently with Paper Magazine where it was demonstrated once again that most celebrity Scientologists are incapable of not offending the public at large. Commenting on psychiatry and psychiatric medicine (those favorite whipping children of Scientology), Phillips was quoted as saying, "Just buck up and get over it. Stop being such a f---king pansy." Now there is a compelling argument if I ever heard one.
It is not ordinarily in my nature to bash any particular religion - they all have their bashing points, but bashing is far from a constructive activity - but I am beginning to wonder if there is an actual Scientology plot to offend as many people as humanly possible. I'm not a huge fan of psychiatry and I do believe that there is an over-dependance on prescriptions in modern psychiatric medicine, but there are times when the shrink and the medicine are actually necessary or might really help. For these people whose only contribution to society at large is to smile for the cameras and whose only education - most of the time - comes from what they've learned on a film set, there seems to be an abundance of short-sighted arrogance.
I understand that the religion of Scientology is opposed to the practice of psychiatry. I get that and I don't really have a problem with it. Most religions have their own little things that they are against and people outside of the particular religion might not understand it. Most of them, however, do not routinely go out of their way to insult everyone who disagrees with them. Even worse, most of them do not send out the very people who were recruited for advertising purposes with instructions to blatantly piss off a significant percentage of the very people they are supposed to be trying to win over. There is a logic to this that is escaping me.
When Tom Cruise went on his little tirade a couple years ago, it damaged his career and the reputation of Scientology (not that Scientology had such a great reputation with most people anyway) and he is now back-pedalling as hard as he can to try to repair some of this damage. Bijou Phillips doesn't even have much of a career. Is it really wise for her to go racing down the same path that a Hollywood superstar is already repenting of?
The powers-that-be in Scientology love to draft celebrities to be their spokespeople. Maybe they should spend a little time teaching them some smart things to say before letting them lose on the general public.