Editorial
Mike, I don’t think what an artist does outside of his art should be of any concern or curiosity of mine. Whoever they are married to, or shacking up with, or having illegitimate (such a strange word – does that mean they’ll never be able to vote?) children with has any bearing on the performance of their art. The only impact that an actor, or any artist, has in my life is in their art. In fact, since acting, or art as a whole, is a fantasy, I not only see no value in trying to inform myself of the supposedly “real-life” issues of an artist, I also see it as a negative. If the artist needs the events of their personal lives to be made public to allow them to portray a character, then they aren’t actors. And, there’s always the situation where bringing in something from an actor’s personal life will be detrimental to their current role, in that it might take away from the actual art.
Perhaps some people feel a closer bond with someone famous by keeping “current” on the gossip about that person. But, I doubt that one can build a relationship based on that kind of distant and subjective interaction. And, there’s probably the situation where lesser (whatever one wants to use to define lesser) people get enjoyment from seeing the famous have problems.
I also extend these views to politicians. As long as a politician isn’t doing something that impacts his effectiveness to carry out the responsibilities of his office (in essence, his art), then more power to him, or her. At least in the States, it seems that anyone that is what is considered morally qualified to be in office, shouldn’t be considered qualified. This not only applies to elections, but also to confirmation hearings. To find “anyone” that hasn’t done “something” that would offend “someone” is becoming damn near impossible.
I can understand that it’s probably not in a country’s best security interest to have a heroin user/addict as president, or prime minister, or whatever. I can’t understand why anyone gives a hoot if that person smoked a joint 30 years prior, regardless of whether he inhaled or not. And to some extent, someone that hasn’t done some personal experimentation/research may not be qualified to tell the rest of us how to live our lives. As always, there are exceptions and degrees, but to be elected/confirmed for a public office either requires a bunch of lying or someone that hasn’t been exposed to the real world (basically someone dead from the neck down, and perhaps everything above).
Maybe in the future the only acceptable politicians will be actors. Actors are use to the gossip, everyone already knows everything about them, and being a politician is just another form of acting – only when a politician does a great job they don’t get an Academy Award, and when an actor does a bad job, he doesn’t get a library built in his honor.
P.S. Mike, one other advantage of a manual transmission is that they can be pop-started. I know - that’s why they invented batteries.