These days, you can’t help but notice that more and more rehab stories featuring A-list celebs are making it onto the news. The media talks about it as if it is some sort of trendy move. The truth of the matter is that most of the celebrities who enter rehab are in a terrible time in their lives, and need honest help.

What people may not understand is that all the money in the world can’t stop your husband from cheating on you. It can’t stop tabloids from pointing out the most minimal amount of cellulite on you buttocks and thighs. Even if you believe money can buy happiness to an extent, you have to realize that it can not act as a barrier against unhappiness. Having millions of dollars doesn’t stop your child from dieing, as was the recent case with Model Anna Nicole Smith.

Consider the amount of drug rehabilitation centers there are in the world. Obviously with that number of centers, it can’t just be celebrities who have addiction problems. The amount of celebrities entering rehab, compared to the amount of celebrities in the world is such a small figure. The media has the ability to magnify numbers to help sell their story.

The people who portray rehab centers as a joke, and the average person who buys into rehab as a fashion statement are hurting the celebrity. They are providing celebrities with the thought process that rehab is a waste of time, and it won’t truly help them. It should be seen as a sad truth which society must face, that everyone has their secrets, and their problems, instead of the game it is being made out to be.

The media has always attempted to gain from others misfortune. It isn’t a new fashion, just an old concept which has been adapted to modern times.

As I begin to write this, Britney Spears and Anna Nicole Smith are getting top billing in the gossip world.

I wonder, sometimes, why we should care about these women. They had a lot in common: both were dumb blonds who got famous on sex appeal alone and made us remember why some people shouldn’t get their own reality shows. One died tragically and one, if the tabloids could be believed, is on her way to doing so, unless K-Fed decides for once to play fair in the divorce proceedings.

I once asked my mother why we care so much about celebrity. As I was saying this, I was in a supermarket, glancing at the covers of tabloid mags, one including a front-page report on celebrity flaws. I asked her, why is it so shocking that a celebrity has cellulite?

My mother explained that celebrities are the closest thing we have to royalty. We want to know what they’re doing, what they’re wearing. We want to gleefully mock their scandals and controversies. Even if we know that the grass is definitely *not* greener on the other side-and there are plenty of books proving that point-we still want to know that at least their lives are better than ours.

There is a very high price for this devotion by fans. The stalkerrazzi has become more and more obsessed with getting a good shot, even to the point of doing foolhardy things like crash their cars into the celebrities cars (witness Lindsay Lohan) or taunt them, hoping for a reaction (witness Rebecca Romijn). And Gods forbid you leave so much as a piece of toast half-eaten, or you’ll find it on EBay the in the blink of an eye.

It is my humble opinion this needs to stop. We need real role models in our lives, not people we’ve never met. But at the rate things are going, I doubt it will end any time soon.

It inevitably comes down to the fact that we need to have people to look up to. In the ancient times they had their gods and goddesses and now in modern times we have celebrities (with the Internet and television I do not think we are naive enough to believe stories of gods anymore).

Celebrities help us get through our day. Not just from pure entertainment but these are the fittest people! They make the most money in the world. They are the most evolved in the population of the world. Okay, so that is going a bit far but they are amongst the most evolved and they are the ones that want to put it on show.

It helps us mere mortals iron out our insecurites. Let’s face it, when you realise that Jerry Hall has cellulite or Kate Hudson has bags under the eyes when she’s tired….it makes you realise you’re not that bad and we all have our bad hair days.

It helps us cope with our relationships. Yes that is right…we are all rubbish at them and no….nothing lasts forever.

They guide us like a religion of shallowness with such depth it is unbelievable!