'D-List' Celebrities Who Use Cancer to Get Publicity

I am pretty sick of D-list celebrities using the "Big C" to further their agenda, which is always all about self-promotion and staying in the public eye.

This happens every month, it seems, and always ends with some extremely cosmetically-altered wannabe on the cover of some tacky magazine, blazing with some melodramatic headline of a sob fest like, “Smacky Kandi’s Heroic Battle With Toe Cancer.”

Seriously?  

I find there is nothing brave about using a horrific disease to further a private agenda - one’s career in Hollywood.  Worse, if readers take the bait and buy these rags, one normally finds out that the so-called "tragic battle" was little more than a new boob job and maybe some radiation, hardly the life and death battle such as the iconic Steven Jobs fought and tragically lost.  One will note that the fiercely private Jobs rarely discussed his disease, preferring to keep the details private.  Since so little of Jobs’ life was private, I totally get that.  

If a public figure, with public clout, is going to come forward about a disease they are battling, for pity’s sake, let it be to further educate the public, or to inform and raise awareness.  Let it be to commiserate with fellow cancer survivors, not to grab self-promoting headlines.   

The last thing I wanted when I first found out about my cancer was to talk about it, even with my own family.  I was so trapped with fear in my own head that I was useless to everyone around me for quite some time.  When I finally came out of it, well into my recovery, it occurred to me to help others - to pay it forward and blog about my experiences.  I just wanted to give someone that, "a-ha" moment, so they would not feel so alone. 

This is because cancer truly is the one battle you fight utterly by yourself, no matter how many loved ones rally to support you.

I realize that I may be singular in my public and all-encompassing disdain for celebrities.  I’ve never even seen a reality television show and I don’t even know who Snookie/Ookie/Pookie is.  I have no idea what the Kardashians do, and the only real housewife I sort of know is my next door neighbor who juggles three little kids at home.  I never hear that woman raise her voice.  That woman is a saint.  

Everyone I hang out with has a career like me, so that’s who I relate to - women like me.  Still, I frustrate my BFF because she likes to call me up with conversations that go something like:

“Are you watching?

“Watching what?” 

“Dancing with the Stars.”  

“No, the Flyers are beating the crap out of the Penguins, it’s a massacre on ice….why?” 

“Just turn it on, ok?” 

“Really?  Jody Shelley is back from his latest suspension and he’s about to drop the gloves with…what were you asking me?” 

“Julie, please focus.  Turn on Dancing with the Stars, it's total drama, I want to ask you something about the tango, ok?” 

“What channel?” 

“Really?  

“Ok, Ok, hang on.  Shelley better not fight while I’m doing this.” 

“OK, you there?” 

“Yeah, yeah, so what did you want to know?” 

“Are you watching the playback?” 

“Uh huh, yeah, no, it’s not an actual tango move, that funny guy with the English accent is right, they broke the rules.” 

“How do you know this stuff anyway?

“I was an uncoordinated kid, my mother was embarrassed, so she made me take dance lessons.  Next time ask me about the jive, I know lots about the jive.  Say, while I have you on the phone, let me ask you something, ok?” 

“Sure, shoot.”

 “The show is called Dancing with the Stars, right?  So, who are all these people anyway?” 

“Really?  Are we going to do this again?” 

“I kid you not, who ARE these people?  I mean, aside from Chaz Bono, whom you have to admire for putting himself out this way.” 

“You really don’t know any of those people?” 

“No, I do not, and so seriously, what is this show all about?  Is it a contest?” 

“You are completely hopeless….” 

And so it goes on and on until my BFF basically grows tired of me wanting to get back to hockey and she gives up. This is my general (low) opinion of celebrities, and I live by that belief by not giving any of them space in my head or my attention.  The glamour days of real movie stars ended when both Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor passed away, anyway. 

You never heard of Newman talking about his lung cancer publicly, and even the headline-grabbing Taylor didn’t go the talk show circuit to wax poetic about her congestive heart condition.

Just sayin’. 

And even if they had talked about their health issues in public, it would have been to raise awareness or to help others.  Taylor’s AIDS charity work was legendary, and Newman’s altruistic endeavors no less compelling.  Bottom line, they used their celebrity status to make a difference.  

So, to that point, it is still October (a.k.a, Breast Cancer Awareness month) folks, so get those mammograms!  There are many programs in the Bay Area where I hail from, so you can get a very low cost or even free mammogram.  So make sure you do that - get that mammo, and stay healthy.  Make a difference with your own family.