But-even after we've beat it to death, we continue to mutilate a person's character and offend the fact that these individuals have passed away and the respect that they deserve in death.

I give you Exhibit A: Princess Diana.

Di was killed in a car accident in August 1997 under what seemed to be a catastrophic series of events where the paparazzi had much to do with a high-speed tragedy, the end result being her death as well as Dodi Fayed's. And here we are, almost 10 years later, and we still have unrest on this, and it is still at the top of our headlines. Now, Mohamed Al Fayed has won his appeal to have a jury listen to the inquest of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths to see if there were wrongful incidents in fact that caused their demise.

Granted, Smith is nowhere in comparison to the elegance and class that Princess Di held in every regard, but her death has been even more relegated to toilet journalism than even Di's did at the peak of the investigation. We have so much uncertainty following this bizarre case, including the father of the baby she recently had, still unanswered questions about her son's death, and now her own passing weeks ago. You could simply create a drinking game by the number of times you continue to hear her name on TV channels every single night.

I could continue to give you exhibits as Marilyn Monroe, John Belushi, even John F. Kennedy. In every case, there is a different scenario that has encompassed the life-into-death travels of each individual, but there are some common denominators that we as a society cannot continue to ignore.

1. The ineptness of our investigations in potentially "foul play" circumstances. Now, I understand that those that plan perfect crimes do so with the utmost care and detail, but the fact that we have trained professionals-that's plural-that work on specific situations day in, day out-I can't help but think that there is a HUGE flaw in our system in terms of finding the ultimate solution to many of these scenarios. Still to this day, JFK's murder is debated, Monroe's death "apparent", and as we have seen in the first two exhibits, many question marks surrounding these situations. It's appalling to think of cases like JonBenet Ramsey and feel safe that there are capable and justice-seeking individuals out there when the high-profile cases are seemingly so because of the very fact that the authorities can't make heads or tails of anything.

2. Our continued obsession with "looking at an accident as we go by" is growing and growing, and it again goes to the very core of our pop culture phenomenon that we have embraced full force. Previously, magazines like People and even US were at least worthy of praise because of the conservative nature; now, they might as well have "NATIONAL ENQUIRER" tattooed across the top of their rag. Even "Newsweek" had an article a few weeks ago on the cover citing the "Bad Girl Effect" with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears dancing-and the highlight of the article was discussing the effects of girls that watch them as role models, and wouldn't you know it-readers of Newsweek complained that they were trying to sell more magazines by putting Hilton and Spears on the cover! Go figure, huh?

No matter what we may have thought about certain celebrities, in death, the media portrayal is shameful and it often bastardizes the people they were in life. Be honest with yourself; do you really feel the same about Marilyn Monroe knowing the questions in her death? What about JFK? The largest example is Princess Diana, who's humanitarian efforts and world-class elegance are now being shoved to the back burner as the sordid details of her death continue to bubble up.

But-can we blame the media-absolutely. Should we blame ourselves? You betcha. We feed to the media ratings and dollars, and they will put up what we want to see. It's a shared responsibility, and a shameful one nonetheless.

Even if there are issues surrounding deaths, let it lay in the hands of those responsible and STOP making a mockery of what is supposed to be a private issue. Families, friends, and loved ones are suffering. Consider if it were you or a close one to your life-how would you feel?

Shame, Shame!

Labels: Anna Nicole Smith, Anna-Nicole-Smith, Britney Spears, Britney-Spears, celebrity deaths, editorial, investigations, Paris Hilton, Paris-Hilton, Princess Di, Princess Diana, Princess-Di, Princess-Diana