Welcome to Hollywood. What’s your dream?

As a “nobody” in the spotlight-driven world that is Hollywood today, I hereby put a disclaimer on the cluster of words to follow.

Said disclaimer: I do not know Hollywood first-hand. As in, I’ve never lived it the way famous people do – but then again, I would venture to guess that 99.9 percent of the people who will read this don’t know it that way either, so my audience is fitting. (Put the .1 percent there in case a G-listed actor reads this. A girl can dream.) I digress.

After a recent trip to Los Angeles where I witnessed a man half-dead on Hollywood Blvd. and the gate leading to Britney Spears’ 8.4 gazillion dollar home all in the same breath, I discovered it boils down to one question really—Is Hollywood a place to be discovered or a place to be discarded?

Following two sad announcements in the past week of extremely young actors dying of possible drug-related issues, I pose this question because I believe there is a problem in our country that merits a solution – at the very least, attention.

We see it every day – featured on TMZ TV, listed next to a vulgar picture on Perezhilton.com or staring back at us in the grocery store checkout line on the cover of People – celebrities and all their problems for the whole world to see and judge. And then tell our friends about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been guilty of this time and time again. (Why else would I have gone to see Britney’s gate?) I just get the sense that we could all use a little substance abuse rehab once and a while.

“Hello, my name is America and I’m a celebrityaholic.” Could be a prime case for the likes of Dr. Phil and his cohorts.

Why Do We Care?

Ever notice when the country is in distress because of a war over oil or our President’s popularity isn’t so hot – no specific names mentioned here – America tends to gravitate even more toward the Hollywood clouds, full of distraction. It’s a place to flee the talk of “war on terror” and the nightly news crammed with local murders and depressing realizations.

Most American citizens genuinely do care about the more serious, “real” news happening around them, yet continuously turn to the tabloid fodder for what can only be explained as an “escape from reality.”

Even reality TV has taken the country by storm…where everyone from washed up 80s band members to Charles in Charge one-hit-wonder actors are being offered their own TV spot. Why would we rather watch strangers live their life rather than go live our own? What is it about Hollywood that is so fascinating to American culture?

As a friend of mine once put it, “the President of the United States could declare war on another country and the news would come second on CNN to Britney Spears shaving her eyebrows.”

Final question for everyone to chew on – what would happen to Hollywood if everyone in America quit paying attention, and ultimately, how would that impact our society?