OMG Brad Pitt!! Why do I care?

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Talk about celebrity gossip. We had quite the rumor floating around the University of Missouri Thursday. It somehow got started that Brad Pitt was on campus. Which may seem completely illogical, but he actually went to Mizzou (diploma free), so it kind of makes sense that he would be here. Kind of.

It all started with one little tweet. I got on twitter during class (oops) and saw something that said, "rumor has it Brad Pitt's on campus." Then it went viral and every was asking where he was and claiming they saw him. I don't know why, but I knew it wasn't true. I texted my roommate and said "if anyone in Columbia is going to be excited about him being here, it would be me. And I'm not." Finally someone posted something from a celebrity gossip site (not me...I was in class, remember?) with a picture of him in L.A. smoking.

It was unbelievable how obsessed everyone became and how quickly that rumor spread. I wonder how celebrity bloggers post lies...this is how it starts. Once you see something on the internet, you want to find out if it's true, so you start asking questions and you get sucked into the giant black hole. I think there's a little difference between being a student and posting a tweet and posting something to a gossip site, but I see how it happens.

And even though I knew it wasn't true, I still got sucked in. I became addicted (I know, imagine that) to seeing what everyone was saying. I just sat there and continued to read all of the tweets coming in. I don't know why I did it, but I did. Which brings me to my next point.

I produce three newscasts during the week at KOMU in Columbia. One of them is the 4:30 am newscast, so I'm there the entire night. This past Thursday morning (like, 2 am) I revealed by celebrity addiction to my executive producer. He asked me something I've never asked myself before and I don't have an answer to. Why do you think you care so much?

I have no idea. And why have I never thought about this before? Why in the world do I care that Britney Spears is getting a drink from Starbucks in California? Why does it matter that Jennifer Aniston is on vacation? It absolutely doesn't. It doesn't effect my life, so why do I spend God only knows how many hours a day reading this?

I wish I had an answer. Maybe it's because they're lives are so much more interesting than mine that I want to know what they're doing to be so interesting. Maybe it's because I get bored in class and it's the first thing I think of doing. Maybe it's just a distraction from real life and a way to escape from everything going on around me.

I don't have a solid answer. And this is a new revelation. And it obviously hasn't stopped be, because I've been checking websites just as frequently, if not more this week. I don't think I'll ever stop reading and researching celebrities. But it is a question that got me thinking.