thanks for the nice article. i've also been wondering where the "normal" celebrities have been. i think there just aren't any trainwrecks anymore. britney's on the up and up, even lindsey lohan is comparatively drama free. everyone likes a nice scandale and a total disaster. remarkably, a very nice south park episode captures this very well! (it was the one with britney spears missing the top half of her head.)

is this related to better "celebrity management" as you put it? probably. that mariah carey episode of cribs was far more interesting than any house tour these days. but then again, britney had teams of handlers and she was the trainwreck gift that kept on giving for quite some time there.

i also don't think that any of these uncelebrities are much more interesting than actual celebrities (who are themselves uninteresting). my survey sample of one has revealed that the people with many children, susan boyle, etc. are totally uninteresting. maybe this is just my own preference, but i still find really dumb outbursts by entitled famous dumb people the most entertaining. kanye's and kim kardashian's blogs are the best examples of what i mean. this is why i still kind of find spencer and heidi entertaining. the deep vat of dumb (combined with glorious self importance!) keeps it a little lively although i try to limit my heidi/spencer intake to once a month or so. but even these people aren't too exciting. i saw a few minutes of the celebrity island thing the other day and it was dullsville the whole time. dull dull dull.

i don't know. i think the phenomenon of celebrity watching is more interesting than the actual watching. so what do i know :P but that interest meant that i found this article and its thoughts on the commodification and same-ization of the celebrity industrial complex interesting.

the knowledge of one of the most important words in arabic (as anyone who has ever traveled to an arabic-speaking country knows) is incredibly basic. it's up there with salaam alaykum in the category of "words many non-arabic speakers know in arabic." assuming best intentions, it would have to take a highly provincial mentality to argue that knowing this word is any indication of any other knowledge of arabic. but i don't assume best intentions in this situation. it's clear that this is just your everyday attempt to otherize obama and sow confusion over his background and allegiance yadda yadda yadda.

on a side note, i'm not old enough to answer this question but maybe other folks around here are. during the cold war, was knowledge of privet, dosvedanya, or spacibo evidence of pinko sympathies? or is this an all new strategy totally not based on any racist assumption whatsoever ;)