The Premise of the Celebrity and War

HMS Sheffield, scuppered but not sunk in the Falklands

Celebrities are there to do our bidding. We pay for their massive oversized salaries. The loss of privacy and freedom is the price they pay for stardom; some rise and succeed, but many fall is a blaze of drug and alcolhol abuse. Celebrities can't blame the public - it's the public that pay for the labour of the celebrity and whether this is in the film or music industy the mediums of demand are the same.

Certainly, the mass media play a big part (it is they that do the hacking not the public). However, it's the media that report what idiotic statements these celebrities say. So they can be forgiven the hacking for the moment. And many do say idiotic things. Who can forget some of the quips said by the Duke of Edinburgh or the recent drunken anti-semitic rant by John Galliano?

Anyway, the worst idiotic statements are political ones. Surely celebrities should stay out of politics? After all we have paid them masses in revenue to be entertained; not to be patronised. Watching rock stars (remember what being a proper 'Rock Star' involves, right?) chat politics with Nelson Mandela is sickly and slighty hypocritical not to mention Tony Blair sharing a glass of Champange with Noel Gallagher in No.10.

And how can we forget Sean Penn's latest endorsement of the basket cased Argentine government's claim to the Falklands Islands? If you've got a minute look up Penn on google, he's been a right unsavory character down the years. A real hypocrite - vacuous, bland, docile, biased, and unintelligent.

We all know what he says is idiotic but the problem is with him being a celebrity - he brings an unbalanced and incorrect view to this undebate and many young or impressionable people latch on to these things and take it as gospel. Being a celebrity, Sean Penn should maintain his skills at acting and entertaining, then be grateful to a public that put him where he is by staying out of foreign affairs and politics.

And like Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, stop insulting the sacrifice of those soldiers who died defending the Falklands Islands against an invasion.