Try this Direct Listen Link if the "Listen to Show"
button to the right does not work
Hosted by: Judy Swallow
Show Originally Aired: 6/7/2004 CALL 1 800-423-TALK
Celebrity Worship
American actors Kevin Kline (news) and Ashley Judd pose during a photocall for the film, 'De-Lovely'. (AP) Email to friend
Pop quiz. Gwyneth named her baby after (a), a poet; (b) a yoga pose; or (c) a fruit. Well the answer is (c)...but you probably know that already. Movie stars and their mating habits are objects of endless fascination. Now, the famous and the people who love them have become a science.
Researchers say they can rate the worshippers, from casual star-gazers to serious stalkers. Anthropologists suggest that our love affair with luminaries is just an extension of a centuries' old instinct to imitate successful people. If our prehistoric predecessors worshipped the hunters, today's celebrity seekers hunt the worshipped. On the pages of People and via the 24/7 crush of cable. Harmless hobby, or too much of a habit? American idols. American idolatry. The slippery slope of celebrity worship.