But the body's not even cold yet!

Dick Clark died yesterday.  Deaths of famous people like him always make me wonder about the media's insanely fast coverage.  I mean, within two minutes of announcing a celebrity death, any website or TV channel you go to is full of pictures and stories from the deceased's life.  In the case of Dick Clark, the poor man wasn't even cold yet and the Internet and news stations were running stories about him with more information than anyone could possibly ever want or need.  How do they do that so stinkin' fast?  Is there a person whose sole job is to sit by the phone waiting for a call announcing a celebrity death?  If and when the call comes, does this person jump to attention, pull out the "death file" marked with that celebrity's name and put together an entire montage of the life in three minutes flat?  I can understand the media posting a picture or two with a short blurb, but seeing their entire life splashed in front of us before the family's tears have even dried is akin to a vulture hovering over waiting for someone to keel over so they can eat.  I just find it wrong and a bit disturbing, but it happens all the time. 

Whitney Houston is another example, as is Michael Jackson.  In a way, it's like passing a horrible car wreck...I want to look but I know I shouldn't.  I just think that if it was my family member who was famous, I would want the inundation of stories, pictures, and skeletons in the closet to slowly make their way into the public rather than minutes after the death.  Wouldn't you?  I wonder...do you think that if you are famous or well-known for any reason whatsoever, there is a biography being written about you and updated often so that "just in case" you end up bereft of life without any notice, the media can get to the presses before rigor mortis even sets in?  I think that's how it works.  Sad but true.

With that being said, I think I'll start my own "death file" so that when I become rich and famous (because I will, you know!), my loved ones don't have to dig up pictures and stories about me.  Besides, I know which pictures I would want strewn across the TV and Internet and which pictures would need to be burned!  I think I'd rather have my fans and followers remembering me the way I was meant to be...thin, cute, and young!  So, basically, they won't be seeing any pictures of me taken after 1995.  Just so you know!