The headlines strike us first: J-Lo’s ex-hubby threatens to leak a honeymoon sex-tape. Tom and Katie spend Thanksgiving apart. Madonna losing her latest boy toy. And, now reports that Tiger Woods has had affairs. Today, he issued an apology to his wife and family, although he wasn’t clear what he was apologizing for, and pleaded again for privacy from the media. My guess is that this demand won’t be heeded.
The love lives of celebrities are the cash cow for most popular media. The biggest click-throughs on even hard news sites like The New York Times are often celebrity love. Why do celebrity relationships titillate us? Most of don’t have lives that involve an entourage who leaks, press who churn gossip, paparazzi who ambush, and much time spent in private airports hiding behind very large sunglasses. So comparing celebrity relationships with ours might seem fruitless, and even a bit grandiose. I mean, when was the last time we worried that our husband might be seduced by a starlet at a Hollywood Club?
Could it be that we are just as voyeuristic as the journalists who collect the dish for us? Are our lives so boring that beautiful, wealthy people are our main source of entertainment?
The answers to those questions are more complicated than a straight yes or no. There certainly is a great deal of entertainment value in watching Godly beauty struggle and morph into human tissue. But I maintain that our lives are not so dissimilar. Most adult Americans experience intense love, great heartbreak, regretful, angry outbursts, and moments of loneliness. We are the fortunate ones who don’t have to read about it on CNN.com with our morning coffee, nor see a bad photo of ourselves beside the article. (For the record, whenever I blog about celebrities, I tend to choose the most flattering photo I can find, even if the mainstream press has pinned them a villain. It just seems like the most humane thing to do.)
We may not have the drama of a media spotlight, but we can certainly sympathize with a celebrities’ relationship problems. People gossip in the real world too. Partners have affairs with co-workers not unlike any on-set romance. Divorce is just as ugly when the child support payment is less than a star’s monthly shoe expenditure. And we sometimes wear dark sunglasses when picking up our kids from school because we can’t find the strength to let our “in crowd” see our pain.
Celebrity news makes our pain feel, somehow, normal. Our very real human emotion of empathy helps us have a shared emotional experience when we witness a celebrity’s love life. Suddenly we are not alone in our own journey. And we are comforted by the knowledge that money and fame do not protect us from relationship problems. And it is that emotional experience that keeps us hooked on entertainment news. The habit isn’t dangerous, unless we find ourselves silently rooting for tears and humiliation, or if we hear a voice calling us sit outside the gates of their mansion. 
But for the most part, we empathize and understand that their problems are much like ours. So, when J-Lo battles a scorned ex in court, we can think of our own divorce woes. When Jessica Tom and Katie face the challenges of balancing work, family and parenthood, we know those feelings. When Tiger and his wife face the stress of growing a family and staying in love, we get it. We are all human and there is some comfort knowing that we share joy and pain.