Odd karma
A couple of weeks ago, I was telling a friend how much I liked the new Sheryl Crow album, “Detours.” Against all odds, I told him, it is my current front-runner for my album of the year.
(I even blogged about it a few months ago.)
My friend made a face indicating an unpleasant odor had wafted his way.
“I just don’t need somebody like her telling me how to run my life,” he said. “She had that whole thing about using one square of toilet paper …”
True enough. In spring 2007, Crow posted a blog entry from her “Biodiesel Bus Tour” on the Washington Post’s Web site:
“Now, I don’t want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.”
At the time (and certainly now), I thought it was one of the dumber and sillier things I’d heard. But I assumed it was a joke, or there was more to the story. (Like she’d been overcome by bus fumes.)
A few weeks later, she said she’d been kidding.
Of course, that part of the story got a little less coverage. It wasn’t outrageous and stupid and silly, so there was no need to report it.
I don’t fault “The Media” for covering the story, and I don’t fault my friend for missing the follow-up. What has baffled me all along, though, and continues to confuse me is why anything Sheryl Crow says makes any difference in his life, or the life of anyone else who has the listener/observer/fan/apathetic bystander with her or any other celebrity or personality. They’re just people, after all, and not necessarily and more expert about whatever they’re spouting about than you or I or the clown at the end of the bar.
Which is a roundabout way of getting to Sharon Stone’s China comments.
Now, Sharon Stone has said some strange things, and some funny things. Here are some quotes from her Internet Movie Database biographical page:
* “I was, like, forty at birth. When I wasn’t even a year old, I spoke, I was potty trained, I walked and talked. That was it. Then I started school and drove everybody crazy because they realized I had popped out as an adult. I had adult questions and wanted adult answers.”
* “Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships.”
* “If you act like you know what you’re doing, you can do anything you want – except neurosurgery.”
* On whether she’d kiss Madonna: “Not in this lifetime. Why? Because I’m the only one she hasn’t done it to.”
So maybe she was running on fumes when, during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, she started throwing out the word “karma” in relation to the Chinese earthquake:
“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?”
Thanks to the predictable outrage from Chinese government officials, she’s taken a huge step back:
“Due to my inappropriate words and acts during the interview, I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people. I am willing to take part in the relief work of China’s earthquake, and wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people.”
Bet you don’t read that quote in as many places as you read the “karma” one, though.