Whatsherface married whatshisface, and they get their own television speical this fall. Neither one seems to have done anything to earn the fame or the reality show. But hey, at least whatsherface is better looking than Paris Hilton.

Society obessess about celebrities, even when they have done nothing to earn thier celebrity. Even those of us who look down on the gossip magazines have our weakness (Who cares about the earthquake as long as Will and Jada are fine!). We like putting them on an impossibly high pedstal and than laugh as they fall. Even if thier fall is something that other people suffer from. Take for instance, Britney Spears and her meltdown - fodder for the comdedians, but maybe it was post-partum depression, isn't that serious? Take, for instance, Linsay Lohan who has gone from cute child star to train wreck, but she is blamed not her parents who used and, in the case of her father, abused her. He gets his own star; she gets jail time. Take, for instace, the Eagles football player who showed up late to training camp because he was struggling with depression. I can't believe he was brave enough to voice the illness, and then people make fun of him. If you're famous, everything is played out as everyone -family, friends, managers, fans - tries to use you.

Paula Uruburu writes about the first big case of such celebrity in this book, such a case that ended with a murder.

Nesbit was a beautiful woman - her photos done before the camera could fully lie prove this. The sole support for her family, she started as an artist's model, then photographer's model, and then tried her hand at acting. Her mother wasn't so much a stage mom, but a sell off, pass around mom. As an actress, Nesbit was introduced to Standford White, who liked them young, and who she eventually had a relationship with. Then enters Harry Thaw who for his own reasons wants to possess Nesbit as well.

I had heard about this scandel, but didn't know much about it. I'm not sure how in keeping with other histories this book is. At the very least, Uruburu raises some good, and still timely, questions about celebratity and gender.

Part of Nesbit's sorrow seems to be the fact that she had to be what everyone else wanted her to be. She was projected upon, and in some ways this undermines the book a little for it is hard to see the real Evelyn Nesbit. It is to Uruburu's credit that she seems note to project too much onto Nesbit, letting Nesbit speak about the relationships with her own voice, and Nesbit doesn't come across as solely a victim. But Uruburu has a point. Society wanted Britney Spears to be the sexual teenage fantasy, but also the teen role model. Her sexuality (any female pop star's) must be expressed differently than Justin Timberlake's (or other male pop star). Lady Gaga is the only one who bypasses this by simply being strange. Today, Miley Cryus is in the spotlight (or was), tomorrow, who knows?

What this book does is show such issues as fame, gender, sex, and press are things we are still wrestling with. Here, is where they started, at least in the modern sense.