The weight we carry is celebrity

In the wake of Mel's passionate polemic and a day after tomorrow that Al Gore can't wait to arrive, Hollywood is gearing up for yet another controversial picture to spark ticket sales. \nThis year's winner of Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is being fast-tracked to theaters in order to capitalize on what they've discovered brings in the bacon more effectively than Lindsey Lohan's "profile."\nIt's not screenwriting, special effects or full frontal nudity.\nAnd then born unto us was a child, and his name was Controversy.\nIf Michael Moore's previous work is any indication, one would assume that this upcoming project will be provocative to say the least. After "Bowling for Columbine," which frankly should be requisite viewing for all Americans pursuing some classification of an education, one might also assume that we're on the verge of witnessing another masterpiece.\nHowever, for some reason I just can't seem to buy into the hype this time around.\nThe poison that's embittering this batch of cookies is simply one word that's gonna' live forever: Fame.\nBaby, remember that name.\nWith Moore -- a man who five years ago couldn't get a job splicing film at a second-run dollar cinema -- suddenly joining the ranks of the Hollywood elite, his irony no longer seems that of the common man frustrated with our system and searching for answers, but that of just another demagogue shouting down from his own personal Golgotha of partisan conspiracy.\nMoore, who has been the poster boy for independent filmmakers everywhere, is now Mr. Los Angeles -- though he lives in New York City -- serving as one-third of an unholy threesome with Harvey Weinstein and Harry Potter. Knowing that this America loves infighting, the studios are using Moore's power to save millions of dollars on advertising while they wait for the front pages of newspapers everywhere to promo the film. \nAnd all the while, Moore is committing the fatal sin of all artists who make a push for mass media: He's believing that he's really that good.\nIt seems he feels that he has achieved olympian cultural importance. He has hired Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani, two former political advisers to Bill Clinton and Al Gore, to form his own private "war room" to fight critics of his new film with tooth, nail and all the angst he has built up from never getting a date in high school. \nOn June 13, Reuters reported, "The group, (Moore) said, will be staffed by six to seven people and will operate 24 hours a day, monitoring newscasts and scanning newspapers, magazines and other publications for statements made discrediting the movie."\nDoes the world really care that much about Michael Moore?\nNow I understand the double standard I'm wading in by commenting on his antics, but I guess unlike Moore, I believe in a real world. I afford myself inconsistencies in order to make sense of those who are the figureheads of our media circus. By doing so, perhaps one receives less notoriety. However, I'll take "understated nobody" over "overstated celebrity" any day.\n And that's really the rub. In today's society, the Moore problem isn't his politics or his work. It's his example. In a rush to make his life noteworthy, he -- along with Paris, Simon, Rush and all their reality apostles and saints -- have found that they've turned themselves into cartoon characters, fodder for late night monologues and water cooler conversation. What we're left with are clowns, no longer famous literates or vanguards. And though every now and then I enjoy a laugh, sometimes I long to be inspired. The shame is that the most recent archive footage of Americans of that caliber is either grainy or buried beneath the weight of their commemorative plates. \nThe celebrity of our ancestors is dead. It's not the way to change the world anymore; it's the way we're holding her back.