Worst of all is when a celebrity can't even be identified as an actor, or a singer, or a talk show host - not that those people deserve to be celebrities, but it's better to be famous for actually doing something worthwhile. The worst example of this kind of bad celebrity was Anna Nicole Smith - with nothing else to fall back on, I remember several newscasters simply calling her a 'celebrity' in the lead-in to stories about her death.
Such was the case of one of the first true celebrities, Charles Lindbergh. In his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh became the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, flying non-stop from New York to Paris.
Five years later, on March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's infant son was abducted by an unknown kidnapper. The ensuing trial - dubbed 'the Crime of the Century', and probably the biggest celebrity trial until OJ Simpson - was a legitimate public spectacle, monopolizing radio news broadcasts. All of this for a man whose claim to fame was being a pilot.
Nowadays, the bar is much lower. Sing a popular song? Have a good agent? Be a C-list celebrity who had a family tragedy? Any of those will turn you into a legitimate celebrity. No longer do people become famous simply for making a contribution to society - unless they have a good media strategy and a book to sell.
Or so I thought.
Watching the Super Bowl pregame festivities yesterday, I was taken aback by the appearance of Sully Sullenberg (right), the pilot who guided a passenger plane to a relatively safe landing in the Hudson River, and his entire flight crew. They weren't there to hype their exclusive interviews, advance agendas of any kind, or even really because they wanted to be there. They were there - for the same reason Sully has been on talk shows - because they are heroes, they saved lives, and although they don't want their lives to change because of it, people want to show their appreciation for what they've done.
I guess we can still do celebrities right.
--Ryan
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