Timothy Caulfield - Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? How the Famous Sell Us Elixirs of Health, Beauty & Happiness

For the superstars in my life:
Adam, Alison, Jane, Michael, and Joanne

Damn, I shouldnt have slept so long is my first thought when I see the size of the line, which is already the width of a boxcar and the length of an aircraft carrier. It is early in the morning and cold. Many of my line mates have blankets and a diminishing food supply. It is clear they have been here for a very long time.

The people in the line come in three categories: teenager, young adult, and parent. The last category is, by far, the smallest. And its members are invariably attached to someone from the first category. This makes me an oddball. As far as I can tell, I am the only solo middle-aged man. I try to look confident and purposeful, as if I am here for some specific and important reason, but I am sure I look mostly awkward and out of place.

What are you doing here? a young woman asks me through a big friendly smile. She is dressed in an outfit that gives her the appearance of someone who just walked off the set of a Mtley Cre video, circa 1987.

I want to say, Making a complete fool of myself, especially since I am in serious need of caffeine and do not feel particularly chatty. Instead I offer an ambiguous Im not really sure.

What are your goals? I ask the woman, who goes by the not-uncool moniker Shakespeare Sunday.

I want to make it. And this seems a good place to start, she replies. American Idol needs a rock star! All the people within earshot of this last comment raise their arms and let out a loud Wooooooo! It is as if this group of strangers has rehearsed the moment, which ends in high-fives and fist bumps.

Ms. Sunday hands me her smartphone and invites me to listen to a recording of her work, which is much better than I expectedthough I am not sure what I expected. Before the song finishes, Ms. Sunday (I just cant bring myself to call her Shakespeare) notices a commotion down the line and abruptly ends our exchange. She pushes toward the edge of the line, grooming herself as she goes. Ms. Sunday has spotted a TV camera.

A man with a microphone is interviewing people in the line, asking them about their hometown, what makes them special, and, of course, if they are the next winner of American Idol. As the camera crew tracks the lineup, a wave of preening and posing moves with it. The criteria for selection as an interviewee seem straightforward: those selected are attractive and/or have something distinctive about their appearance. My new friend, Ms. Sunday, is among the chosen. She satisfies both requirements but mostly the latter.

I am not (at least currently) a singer, and I do not have any plans to become one. My voice is terrible. Fortunately, my future does not depend on it. I am a university professor who has spent the last twenty years researching and writing about the health policy implications of things like genetics, stem cell research, obesity, health care reform, and personalized medicine. So what the heck am I doing at an American Idol audition? Well, I hope to audition! And why do I want to audition? Because I want to learn more about, and get as close as I can to, the phenomenon of celebrity. And nothing represents celebrity culture better than American Idol.

During the past few decades, celebrity cultures grip on our society has tightened. This is a truism. I dont need to convince anyone that we live in the age of celebrity. Yes, celebrities have been part of the cultural landscape for most of human history. From Alexander the Great to Lord Byron, we have always been fascinated with the famous. But never has celebrity culture played such a dominant role in so many aspects of our lives. It has a measurable influence on individual health-care decisions, the things we do to stay healthy, how we view ourselves physically, the material goods we want to possess, and our future career aspirations. Whether we like it or not, celebrity culture has a profound impact on our world, framing how we think about important issues and even influencing how we view our place in the universe. But this is not a book about celebrity culturethere are many interesting and thoughtful treatises on the nature and causes of our obsession with famous people. Rather, in this book I analyze and debunk the messages and promisesimplicit and explicitthat flow from the celebrity realm, be they about health, diet, beauty, our ambitions, or what is supposed to make us happy.

Many writers have proposed definitions of celebrity culture. For this book I am interested in our preoccupation with, and the value we attach to, celebrity lifestyles and to celebrities themselveswhether in the realm of movies, music, or sportsand all the industries and social structures that create and sustain them. Celebrity culture is often blamed for dumbing down our social discourse, but less has been said about how it is a source of misinformation. Indeed, celebrity culture has emerged as one of the most significant and influential sources of pseudoscientific blather. It fills our cultural landscape with notions ranging from those that are patently absurd and widely mocked (such as Simon Cowells hiring of a psychic house healer to exorcise his home of negative energy) to those that gain substantial social traction and market appeal. The popularity of juicing, cleanses, detox diets, weird exercise routines, and a boatload of beauty and antiaging products and practices can be linked directly to celebrity endorsements. Think, for example, of Kate Perrys and Hilary Swanks advocacy of vitamins, Gwyneth Paltrows enthusiasm for colon cleanses and a gluten-free diet, Jennifer Anistons ballyhooed belief in water cures, or just about every celebritys advice on how to lose weight.

Looking at these health and well-being issues through the lens of celebrity culture may seem frivolous. But we should not underestimate the impact celebrities can have on our preferences and attitudeswhich is, of course, why they are so frequently paid millions of dollars by advertisers to move product. Specific examples abound. Angelina Jolies revelation that genetic testing precipitated her decision to have a preventative mastectomy resulted in an immediate increase in demand for both genetic testing and preventative mastectomies. Similarly, and perhaps more troubling, images of celebrities smokingin film, on TV shows, and in magazinesare linked to an increase in cigarette consumption. The celebrity trend for using beautifying and rejuvenating vitamin intravenous therapy has reportedly caused a shortage of critical medical supplies. Ill-informed celebrity statements about the alleged risks associated with vaccines (most notably by Jenny McCarthy) have adversely impacted public dialog about the value of vaccines. And, most disturbingly, reports of celebrity suicides are associated with an increase in suicide in the general public. I could go on and on and on.

Some have suggested that humans are evolutionarily wired to follow and perhaps be influenced by people they look up to. Many species, including other primates, carefully watch dominant individuals within their group. Evolutionary psychologists have speculated that this tendency evolved as part of a package of innate predispositions that allow humans to learn from successful role models. The process happens unconsciously. While this propensity may have helped prehistoric hunter-gatherers to acquire useful bits of knowledge and skill, in the context of modern society, following Gwyneth Paltrows health advice or coveting Kim Kardashians life provides little benefit. In fact, in the pages that follow I will argue that this propensity has emerged as one of our societys most pernicious forces, contributing to, among other things, poor health decisions, wasted investments in useless beauty and fitness products, a decreased understanding of how science works, and increased dissatisfaction with our appearance and perhaps our lives.