Jacko is Just a Little Misunderstood

Concise review of Michael Gross' Starstruck, a book about celebrity fanatics who obsess about their favorite movie and rock stars. We found this the most interesting:

The book also covers the dualism of entertainment reporting, where reporters are pressured to paint a rosy picture of the celebrities they are covering, which in turn feeds into the idealized image their fans harbor, which then buttresses the stars' fame, all the while making the so-called journalists feel like two-bit sellouts.

We assume the reporters write flattering words about their subjects, in order to assure access later. Who then does the honest reporting, the type of reporting that might help diffuse the celebrity obsession that brings American Idol to our family rooms twice a week? We're guessing just a handful of reporters. The rest probably truckle. We also suspect that, by the time a celebrity is outed as a cad, he has probably gotten away with a lot of poor behavior.