Gawker Abused in Salon

In a piece about Gawker and celebrity news, Heather Havrilesky asks Salon readers:

But in this head-spinning year of celebrity obsession and backlash, did we gain anything by listening in on Alec Baldwin’s private phone message to his daughter, or watching camera-phone footage of David Hasselhoff drunkenly scarfing down a hamburger, or reading Charlie Sheen’s alleged e-mails to his ex, Denise Richards?

And the answer from FBLA is yes, yes we did. We learned that fame, fortune and talent do not equate good judgment and a refined sensibility and that trashy behavior is not confined to the obese who shop at Wal-mart, drive SUVs, vote Republican, eat at chain restaurants and give their children kre8tive names.

HH decries what she calls the logic of the Year of the Lunatic:

If the rich and famous are happy and carefree, then you, by dint of your relative insignificance and poverty, have every right to make them as unhappy as humanly possible.

This from a woman who authored The Pop-up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns, vols. I, II.

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