TWIN births, the messy divorce of an ex-supermodel and Material Mom’s supposed affair; the past week saw headlines made in tabloid heaven for a public consumed by celebrity fervour.
It is a daily American pastime – perhaps even an obsession – that has spawned a global fascination as well.
Why not? This is the home of Hollywood, the dream machine that gave the world breathless stories, true and false, and personalities from Brangelina to Britney.
People, the weekly celebrity magazine, has a circulation of 3.6 million. Time averages about 3.3 million while the country’s top-selling newspaper USA Today is just about 2.5 million.
The past week had been such an intoxicating time that one tabloid called it “gossip glory days” for all the salivating stories about the A-List of show-business.
Even CNN loves a good gossip. Lara Logan, a CBS journalist once stationed in Iraq, was a Sunday morning topic last week on the cable network which discussed how she became tabloid fodder when she got pregnant with somebody else’s child even as her own divorce was not finalised yet.
Time and again, newspapers such as the New York Post get complaints from readers who questioned its choice of putting, say, Lindsay Lohan on the front page when the country is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and soldiers are dying.
It is the perennial chicken-and-egg question.
Celebrity sells, surely, because of the ready and willing market. Even aging, fading stars are still seen on TV here, appearing for advertisements promoting everything from beds to real estate. Think Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) and Erik Estrada (CHiPs).
This being the Paris Hilton generation, pseudo-celebrities are also aplenty here through their reality shows that are a staple nowadays on American TV.
TMZ.com, a major celebrity gossip site, gained enough traction to have its own show.
Show-business is big money, indeed. Radio host Ryan Seacrest earns about US$12mil (RM38.8mil) a year, by Forbes' estimates. Late-night TV show host Jay Leno gets US$25mil (RM80.9mil).
The Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles is often crowded with not just tourists but people dressed up as Superman, SpongeBob, Batman, Catwoman and Spiderman – all eager to pose for pictures for a tip.
Last year, Los Angeles received 2.7 million foreign tourists, making it the second-most popular city among international visitors, after New York.
Los Angeles, indeed, is a movie-making town producing an assembly line of movies, TV shows and the likes.
In the morning, the TV series Heroes was shooting an episode outside a Carl’s Jr in downtown LA. Later that evening, a beer commercial was being made nearby.
Seeing stars, or perhaps even stalking them, is fair game here. Maps detailing where celebrities live are sold at US$2 (RM6.50).
Even scientology here is known officially as the “Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre”.
Tour guides such as John M. take delight in offering morsels of gossip to his entourage.
“Ben Stiller has a reputation of not being very nice to the public,” he said.
“You can see all the high walls around his house,” he added, as he drove a group of visitors around Beverly Hills.
To the gawkers, he advised: “Keep a look out on who’s jogging or driving past you.”
And, according to him, “the Range Rover is the number-one car among celebrities.”
Tours are aplenty for the curious or morbid. Discover where American sweetheart Shirley Temple grew up! See the hotel where Janis Joplin died!
One company promises its customers the “Hollywood Movie Star Experience” for that behind-the-scenes feel.
A two-hour “movie stars’ homes” package, meanwhile, will take visitors to “over 40 magnificent houses of the rich, famous and infamous,” according to the leaflet. “You may very well see more glitz and glamour than some will ever see in a lifetime!” it promises.
Sound enticing enough, no?
John M., for instance, would point out houses belonging to Carmen Electra, Will Farrell, Orlando Bloom and Quentin Tarantino, among others. He knows the prices of these posh homes, too.
True blue fans don’t just want to know where they live, as the paparazzi in them would want to know where the stars eat and where they come out to play.
“That’s Il Sole over there. It’s Jennifer Aniston’s favourite,” he said, referring to the restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. He also marked out Ketchup, an eatery partly owned by Ashton Kutcher.
Also on Sunset Boulevard is another celebrity hangout, which is the Beverly Hills Hotel, or “Hotel California to the Eagles,” John M. said.
One evening, just outside Kodak Theatre, there was a stall selling Barack Obama t-shirts for US$10 (RM32). One of the messages on the T-shirt says “No more drama, vote Obama”.
An understatement surely, especially so in a state whose governor is a former movie star. Moreover, “Governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Republican while his wife supports the Democrats. That itself is enough to juice up the stories.
In La-La Land, the drama must go on. Every day.
