Tuesday, Lafayette, Indiana

The news broke today that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are the proud parents of a new set of fraternal twins, born in France. This now brings their brood to six kids. Good for them. At a time when so many celebrities are known for their jet setting lifestyle, privileged wealth and freedom from the kinds of responsibilities average people confront, it is refreshing to see a couple of superstars focus on higher values. Pitt and Jolie have made it clear that the riches they gain from their work as movie stars is to be used toward raising awareness about poverty, oppression and other forms of injustice around the world that hurt innocent people. Bravo!

In contrast to their devoted efforts to do good things, it exposes the venal and prurient interests of the media who they manipulate to the advantage of their vaunted priorities. I’d like to believe that they are mostly amused, for example, that they are able to sell photos of their new babies to the tabloid media for a reported $13 million! Can you imagine this lunacy? Their new baby twins are the object of such intense curiosity that a media outlet will pay this shocking some just to expose photos of these celebrity children. Illustrations of our depravity of bound; and here in lies a great example. It makes me wonder, are you one of the people who would spend money to get a look at the baby children of Brad & Angelina

Our local newspaper, an affiliate of Gannett, have the story of these babies placed prominently on page two. Coverage of the war and the election followed on subsequent pages. And it all begs the question: do they print this because we’re curious; or are we curious because they publish this stuff? I must admit that I suspect it is the latter. If it wasn’t publicized I don’t know that we would care. Because it is put out there, it creates the impression that this has become important. I wish Pitt and Jolie blessings and support for their devotion to worthy causes. And I understand that they will use the money gained from pictures of their babies for charity. But it doesn’t make this matter any less twisted and whacked.

- On at least one occasion you have traveled out of state trying to meet Brittany Spears
- At the hair dresser you show a photo of Amy Winehouse as an example of what you want
- Your only daily subscription is the National Enquirer
- You have been arrested for trespassing on the property of the Dick Van Dyke
- You have a tattoo of Tom Cruise on your cheek
- A month after Madonna moved to London, you also relocated there
- You quit your job to stalk Fabio
- You bought a house because it was next door to the home of Henry Winkler
- You paid a private detective several thousand dollars to get the phone number of Sharon Stone
- You named your son Keanu