by Marissa Meleske

Created on: September 02, 2011

We'd all be lying if we said we didn't want to be set for life in our bank accounts, for ourselves and for our families. We'd also be lying if we said we didn't want to be well known, well liked and well respected, for something that we love to do. Unfortunately, with the good must come the bad. Celebrities pay a big price for their fame. One I'm not sure we'd all think was worth it to pay, if we were in their position.  

Celebrities begin their lives like any average person. With a dream. In fact, unless their egos become even bigger than their bank accounts, they still are an average person, even after they've achieved their dreams and are known across the globe. Even then, they are like the average human being, despite the fact that some celebrities and their egos would dispute that. The only difference between someone who works a regular 9 to 5 job and a celebrity, is that celebrities have a lot more downfalls to their lives than you may think. It is not all glitz and glamour. They are all real people like the rest of us. It is just like Chick Vennera says in two of his scenes on the Lifetime show "The Golden Girls". Sophia brings him home as a Spanish speaking prize fighter. When the girls find out he speaks fluent English, they are shocked. He goes on to say that it was part of the "image" and that he only conformed to what Cuban prize fighters are "supposed" to be like, and the women had just bought into it. He think gives a speech; "Well I am a Cuban. But hath not a Cuban eyes? Hath not a Cuban hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food? Hurt with the same weapons? Subject to the same diseases? Healed by the same means? Warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as you are? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"  

Celebrities live under a microscope. Their private lives, as they once knew it, cease to exist. Those of us working our 9-5 jobs, probably wouldn't survive that well in their shoes. What was once an enjoyable hobby, becomes something they HAVE to do, even if it is the last thing they WANT to do, on a particular day. They feel constant pressure to live up to the image their fans and the entertainment business created for them. However, are they not people too? Do they not get affected by the same things we do? The answer is, they absolutely do. Sometimes they get the brunt of it, more so than anyone. Celebrities often have no time to themselves, no time to just BE themselves. They constantly need to be "on" in that "world". When they don't want to be "on", they are constantly wondering if the people they are around would accept them in the same way, if they just kicked back and were the person they are outside of the job, without the money and fame. The constant pressure often leads them into the dark side of fame, and only some are lucky enough to come out of that alive.

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