It is WRONG!!

We just got home from the grocery store and I saw something at the checkout stand that has me fired up.

People magazine has Natasha Richardson on the cover. "Her Tragic Accident". My reaction to the story is that they are invading the private space of a grieving family.

I know these "celebrities" give up their private space when they get into the movie business, but this is not Paris Hilton, or Britney Spears who parade their vagina's in public when the news cycle is slow, this is a family that has been private and out of the spot light.

I'm not quite sure what about this sad story that is hitting me harder that she was living a quiet life as a loved wife and mom, that she was only 45, or that I too had a freak skiing accident that could have resulted in the same outcome. Mostly, I think it was her age - 45.

My dumb accident just makes me able to put myself in her shoes that you feel fine (shaken) but embarrassed. Clearly, any significant head bonk should NOT be ignored. (I fell while skiing in college and significantly whacked my head against a tree and spent an evening in the ER getting x-rays and stitches while they asked me over and over again "do you know where you are, do you know who you are?" )

We may think we know these celebrities and that we have a right to be "involved" when real life goes down, but we don't. We don't have any obligation to these people other than to feel compassion and pray (if that's your thing.) We certainly don't have the right to the autopsy details, photos or pictures of the grieving husband or their kids. Come on, did ANY OF US even know they had two kids? It seems to me that the fact that Ms. Richardson was married to Liam Neesan was more of a trivial knowledge fact than a concern to the average person on Sunday. We don't have any obligation to them, and they don't have any obligation to us.

Mr. Neeson asked for privacy and I think even having to make the request is sad. I hate that she'll be on the cover of US weekly next week. I hate that Star magazine will find some sensational angle to prolong the story. Well, unless Britney brings her vagina out for a night on the town tonight. (OH MY GOD... Britney's vagina could actually do GOOD for the world!)