Children of the New Moon

Celebrities are just like everybody else: getting busted for dog fighting, drunk driving, drug-induced brawling; getting sick, bleeding; getting married and divorced, never getting married; having kids; not having kids; saying brilliant things; saying stupid things. Celebrities are just like everybody else, they just get paid more than "regular people."

Happy birthday to Kenneth Branagh (b. 1960), director, actor, lead in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), a movie that ponders celebrity status, relative and competitive star power, fate, luck, kismet, chutzpah, ambtion, talent, drive, existential choice, persistence, and all that kind of jazz.



Happy birthday also to Meg White (b. Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, 1974), who has tried to be "a private person" while also being a rock star -- a precarious balance thrown into dissarray recently by someone's circulation of a sex tape on the internet. The White Stripes have canned live appearances for now, but they still keep turning out music and new product. There is no doubt in my mind that she didn't want this tape released (and probably didn't know it was being filmed) -- unlike some of her more exhibitionist peers in L.A., who probably see such things as frolics or publicity stunts. She may be a celebrity, but she's still a person, right?


Old school celebrities -- Sophia Loren apparently checking out Jayne Mansfield's "competition." The more things change, the more the children of the new moon seem like the children of the old moon -- existentially at any rate, just folks. Shucks. . . . .

Today's Rune: Protection.

Thanks for all the happy birthday comments, much appreciated. I've been having, in Iggy & The Stooges parlance, a real cool time, but is it Christmas break yet?