The life of celebrities is something that normally doesn't take up too much of my time; however a news story, and an incident brought it to my attention while we were in New York City.
The news story was the tragic but perhaps not unexpected death of Whitney Houston. Houston who came originally from Newark,New Jersey, seemed to be on a downward spiral of self destruction from many years. Nevertheless my mind naturally returned to the 1980s when she dominated the charts in both the USA and UK and when we saw her perform "in the round" at Wembley Arena.
Even in death, Whitney was front page news, filling hours of TV and pages of newsprint. How strange that when the family decided that they wanted a private funeral, some of the public felt cheated.It is as if the public felt that they owned a piece.
The rain fell on New York City one lunch time. Leaving Grand Central terminal we hurried across the street taking refuge in Modells Sports Store where I was looking for a Knicks sweatshirt. After some minutes my wife said that man over there looks like Paul McCartney.
It soon became apparent that it was, and that he was buying a baseball cap for a teenage boy.
Now for people of my generation, and I imagine for women in particular, Paul McCartney is a genuine "star". As I stood in line behind him, what pleased me was that he felt able to shop in person in a high street store, and significantly no one interrupted him. After he'd left the store, I asked the assistant if he realised who he had just served. To a young American no older than twenty, it meant little. He responded that some weeks earlier Derek Jeter had been in the store and that was really special.
This illustrated to me wonderfully that celebrity status and fame is often time framed and geographically centred. While Derek Jeter is a superstar in NYC, I'm sure he could walk into most shops in London and be just another American tourist.
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