Us Magazine has a particularly stupid – and poorly done – section called Stars – they’re just like us! What’s really annoying, besides the Duh! Factor - is how they style the section. Each pic has a headline that is so beyond inane that I actually get a headache after skimming through the pages. “They ride their bikes!” a headline will scream and below is a pic of Rachel McAdams riding her bike around town. “They run with music!” “They pack their own trunk!” Aaaaaaaargh! Why don’t they just print “They wear shoes!” and be done with it?
I think part of the problem is that we all know that stars are not really just like us most of the time. We don’t have assistants, or more than one nanny, or several vacation homes, or a stylist on call. We don’t have people giving us free stuff all the time in the hopes that we’ll be photographed wearing it and that, in turn, will make other people (us!) want to buy it. We don’t make millions of dollars for 12 weeks of work. (We also don’t have to do press tours which do sound like one of Dante’s Circles of Hell).
But they are just like us in one really important way; things that are beyond human control. That is the true equalizer. Losing a parent – or worse yet, losing a child like John Travolta and Kelly Preston did over the weekend – is the one reminder that no matter how much money or fame you have, or how many homes or planes you own, you are still unable to stop freak accidents.
Nearly a year ago the Zamboni driver at the ice rink where my daughter skates lost his 19 year old son in a kayaking accident. I went to the funeral home with another skating mom and we clung to each other as we walked in, knowing we were ill-prepared for what we might find. And we were; because instead of finding a family wallowing in despair and screaming about the unfairness of life we encountered two very sad parents who were grateful for the time they had with their son, who were consoling his sobbing friends and – at the same time – reminding them that life is fragile and they should be grateful for every single moment.
I hope that the Travolta’s have loving people to surround them and tell them what fabulous parents they are, and how lucky they were to have the gift of that boy for 16 years and that they will have the privacy and time they need to get over this loss without millions of people needing to see if they grieve “just like us.” They do. I’m sure of it.
