If you're scratching your head wondering why it seems that the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-Pitt break-up took over the "actual" news for a day instead of the focus being on "real" issues and things that should matter in life, here's my opinion on why it managed to take over the airwaves.
1. It's Pop Culture, Deal with It
Celebrities and pop culture are a part of our lives whether you like it or not. When some funny skit comes on SNL and the next day everyone is imitating it, or Beyonce falls down the stairs at a concert, or some young star is found with hookers and blow, we want to know about it and thanks to the internet and cell phones, EVERYBODY knows. It's part of any culture to some degree, but in the US and a few other places, it is big business fueled by tv shows like TMZ, front page magazines, and entertainment television. The only way these things are allowed to keep going and these shows to air is if a whoooollleee bunch of those people claiming "they don't care," actually stop and read, watch, or listen to these types of stories, and since they are, here we are.
2. You can have a guilt free opinion
You've heard about Donald vs. Hillary for years now, war is never ending as is terrorism, the battle with police v. the public is an ongoing issue for which there seems no end, but you can't bring up those topics with just any old person and not get into some sort of heated long winded debate---for the very fact that those things DO matter to our daily lives. However, you CAN definitively bring up Brangelina to any old group of people, and everyone can have a light-hearted discussion about what they feel and think about the divorce and how it went down. It's relieving to just be able to talk about something, well, something stupid, and be done with it, and move on with your day without people getting terribly upset or angry
3. We can relate
Everybody knows someone who has, or is, or maybe you yourself have been through a divorce. You may have dealt with some of the issues being brought up or as a child you witnessed your parents going through it, and so here is this very public couple out there that you've watched over the years whether you really paid attention or not, going through something very relatable. We like to think celebs aren't actual people with problems or that their money and power solves everything for them, but when it doesn't or it can't, it makes us view them as more human and we can relate to the struggles and having fights over who gets the kids or being that kid being fought over in a divorce.
4. They are rare
Holly wood marriages don't last 12 years, especially those "allegedly" born out of an affair. It's almost common knowledge that they go down hard within the first 5 years, but here you have this attractive couple, who go on to have and adopt 6 kids (also rare) in Hollywood, and for all the previous rumors of break-ups and the like, they stayed married. It, if you can believe it, gave some people hope that, for some life does really work out really well. Again, we all know some couples where people doubted they'd make it and they've made it, and a lot of people felt like, here is the one bucking the tradition, but alas...
5. We're bored
Dear politicos and Harvard Ph.D's, not everyone cares one crap about politics, or war, or education, or the police in the same way you don't care about Brad and Angie and even if they do, there isn't a whole lot of new going on. You wake up every morning on big news, and it's the same exact story every single day, no breaks. This story...is a break, and all those people out there just want something new to talk about to fill in the empty spaces. To say that, we should only ever focus on war and pain and politics all the time is not an accurate assessment of how one should live their lives. I don't tend to show up to a friends birthday party and bring up the debate about Syrian refugees. Does that mean that doesn't matter simply because I don't mention it every single minute of every single day to every single person, no. It means there are other things going on in the world and not all of them are or have to be so serious all the time in order for you to think or believe something else is important too.
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