There have been times when I’m at the movie theater, or at home when one of those tell-all television shows blurts out mundane facts about Brad, Tom, or Nicole in presumptuous tones of importance, when the logical left side of my brain slips away from its better half and begins to wonder. Just what is that special ingredient that makes certain professionals, like movie stars or athletes, so much more special to us than say, a kick-ass insurance salesman? To be honest I’m feeling a little naïve right now to even have to ask. I’m sure that a large part of this great mystery lies in the fact that their lives are so open and exposed to the public. We all respect the hard work and natural talent that’s required to be a great actor or actress. We follow the careers of our favorites, and somehow feel like we almost know them personally. Sports heroes are followed the same way, thrust into the limelight in their teens and then followed all the way to retirement. We know their salaries, their wife’s name, and their height and weight. We know if they get arrested for DUI or when they ask their bosses for more money, and how much. But would these athletes or actors be as interesting to us if their professions were not made so public? If we took away the public relations agents, the huge stadiums and the multiplexes, and let these professionals do their jobs in obscurity, perhaps they would become as ordinary as the rest of us. My left-brain is dying to know. [read more]