Paper 3

Society is overly obsessed with Hollywood infidelity, which in turn makes the adulterous celebrity more famous than they were before.

                For the most part, the more media coverage a celebrity can garner, the more famous he or she becomes. In other words, all press is good for their career, even if it’s untrue, extremely personal, or redundant. But why? Americans are so consumed in the personal lives of celebrities because people want to relate to these elite, successful stars. While the celebrities are just as human as your Average Joe, it still fascinates people that Brad Pitt would cheat on Jennifer Aniston. There is a definite voyeurism to this phenomenon, which says a lot about American society. But that voyeurism—the obsession with following every detail of an affair to a divorce—that propels the adulterous celebrity’s star higher in the Hollywood realm.

Warrants:

-Look at the most famous and most successful stars in Hollywood and whether or not they have had an affair  (even if allegedly)

- Examine the careers of stars before and after an affair

-Relationship experts’ opinions on Hollywood infidelity

It deserves attention because it’s concerning that our society is entertained by watching the celebrities’ personal lives fall apart. Marriage is incredibly sacred, and yet our fascination and scrutiny regarding an affair makes reconciling nearly impossible. I wonder if celebrities recognize the sensationalism that an affair yields in the press, which motivates them to cheat in order to promote their career. Obviously that’s a pretty far-fetched idea, but it’s worth looking into.

My argument will be aimed at women in their 20s and 30s. I’m thinking I’ll write this as though it were going in People Magazine—since the magazine is the most credible of the Hollywood-centered publications. Women of this age are interested in celebrity culture, but they also have marriage on their minds.

I think that the main challenge will be finding evidence to support my claim. I don’t know what is out there—I’ll have to research what it is about society’s obsession with celebrities’ personal lives as well as see about finding experts’ opinion s on Hollywood infidelity and its aftermath.

I feel that this will be pretty conventional. I don’t see this as being an extreme opinion piece. I’d like to keep the tone more casual than formal, but we’ll see. It depends on the type of material I find that backs up my argument.