
Usually we agree with former-Us Weekly editor Bonnie Fuller in her assessment of celebrity culture. But her HuffPo article this week, about why so many celebrities experience tragedy while on vacation (especially the Bahamas) is seriously nuts.
Why does this happen to them more?
# 1 Percentage wise, they have way more vacation time than the normal population
# 2 A lot of them are afflicted with a sense of infallibility. They don't think they can have accidents and that can translates into reckless behavior.
Many celebs also, ahem, have the tendency to drug and drink too much. Perfect example, Natalie Wood who drowned at age 43 after a boozy night on her vacation yacht in Catalina Island, CA in the company of husband Robert Wagner and costar Christopher Walken in 1981.
First of all, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with Bonnie's ostensible newspeg about Jett Travolta dying on family vacation. Taking a shower really doesn't count as "reckless behavior," and we doubt that family is into any kind of hard drugs (Xenu wouldn't allow it). But most confusing is Fuller's premise: More celebrities die on average on vacation than normal people. Are there any facts to back this up?
How many of YOUR friends or acquaintances pass away on vacations or in vacation spots? It certainly seems like celebrities are far more affected by this awful phenomenon than regular folks.
Speculation, speculation. To be fair, the Travoltas and Anna Nicole Smith and Natalie Wood weren't my acquaintances either, so the tragic deaths in their family is not part of that ratio. The reason celebrity deaths make news is because they are celebrities: plenty of people die on vacation and we don't pay attention to it because face it, they just aren't famous enough for us to care.
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Natalie Holloway was on vacation
Jennifer Seitz was on vacation
Shawn Wang died while on vacation
I mean seriously Bonnie, a little Google search would reveal that celebrities and non celebs alike die on vacation all the time.
Oh and there is a piece from the Orlando Sentinel posted Nov. 2 2008 about people dying while on vacation.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com.....014.column
From the article:
Roughly 6,000 Americans pass away while they're overseas every year
Pretty sure the majority of those are not celebrities.
Don't forget Sonny ( CHer ex husband) He died skiing into a tree while on a ski trip. At least he got to bang Cher when she was young and had low mileage.
I should THINK plenty of regular people pass away on vacations all the time due to all the activities would not normally be available to them (parasailing, scuba diving, excesive drinking, etc…) in their daily lives… we just don't hear about it because they're not as news worthy… still sad though…
I think celebs are poopy.
Heath Ledger died because he was punished for making that gay movie. The one with man on man action. It's true.
Heath Ledger did not die because he made a "gay" movie. He died because of an accidental overdose. His death was not punishment. Get a clue!
@Fred: It's always great when people don't pick up on really obvious irony.