Off Limits

Paparazzi and bloggers have gotten a pretty bad wrap over the past few years...and deservedly. Sleazy photographers setting up shop on a celeb's front yard. Fame seeking bloggers relentlessly reporting on what they had for lunch...and with who.

Its become a staple of celebrity life. You want to make TV shows and movies? Someone is going to dig through your trash. Even those with little or no talent *cough* Kim Kardashian *cough* are subjected to the same irrational invasion of privacy simply because the public finds you interesting right now.

Now, in principle, I have no problem with this. Its the hazards of the job. In most regular job descriptions it says, "Must be able to lift 50 lbs and must be available to work some holidays." For a celebrity it reads, "Must be willing to have every relationship meticulously examined by media and must look flawless even when going to the gas station." They signed up for it, they know the drill...but sometimes it goes too far.

Now don't think I'm feeling sorry for the likes of Britney Spears and Heidi Klum. My pity is something they definitely do not need. No, my problem with the media's war on celebrity privacy is the civilian casualties, namely their children.

See the story goes, "Mommy wanted to be a big star and have their name in lights. She wanted everyone to take her picture!" And so as a trade off Mommy has to fight through a pack of paparazzi and have her divorce splayed over every grocery store rag from Seattle to Crab Apple Cove. That's fine for Mommy, but is it fair to the kid who's being dragged along in the wake?

Where did this concern come from you ask? Well, last week I was googling one of my guilty pleasure TV shows, "Jon and Kate +8" (Yes, I know, don't judge me) and I found some very disturbing things. Now, for those uninformed viewers, Jon and Kate is a reality show on TLC which chronicles the lives of a family that contains two sets of multiples, twins and sextuplets.

I got into this show originally because of how fresh and open the parents were. They weren't some religious zealots like some other television families with a lot of kids, and they talked to each other like other couples I know...with a good dose of yelling. Unfortunately, the show has been on long enough and become a cash cow with little or no ties to reality anymore, but the kids are cute, so I continue to TiVo.

No my problem wasn't with the greedy stage parent antics. No my problem was this. A blog on nypost.com named Madelyn Gosselin, one of the seven-year-old twins on the show, one of the "top ten most useless characters on television". This is by far one of the most uncalled for and blatantly vicious attacks I have ever read.

The author, Jarett Wieselman, tries to soften his comments by admitting that Maddy is a child that never asked to be filmed, but then sort of negates that by saying, "She possess every quality - selfish, egocentric, whiner, not a joiner - that parents would use genetic testing to eradicate if it were an option. But considering J&K have eight kids, they should feel lucky only one bares the mark of the beast. "

Now I don't care how bratty the kid can be, admittedly she's no angel, but it is never NEVER OKAY TO VERBALLY ATTACK A CHILD for reacting to something she has no control over. Three times a week a bunch of strangers come into her house and film her regardless of whether she's in a good mood or not. To add insult to injury, they're not even there for her. They want to see the sextuplets. She and her sister are merely the side show and have been that way since her little brothers and sisters where born. She didn't ask to be on TV and you judge her because she's not always happy about it?!

If this vitriol was reserved to this one blogger, I could probably let this go, but its not just Maddy incurring the wrath of the small minded. I've seen posts on popular sites, such as Perez Hilton, ripping in Heidi Klum's son, Henry, because he didn't meet Hollywood's standards of adorable.

When did this become alright? When did it become okay to berate children? To rifle through their trash because they're in the sphere of a famous person?

Not too long ago we got to watch the growing pains of George W.'s twins in all its technicolor glory. Now that we have two preteens in the white house are they fair game? Are they going to plaster Malia's first boyfriend on People magazine? Are Sasha's awkward teen years going to be fair game for Perez as well?

Enough is enough. None of these kids signed up for this, Mom and Dad did not them. They're not fair game, so back off.

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