Lifestyles of the rich and famous

Mourning over the rich and famous, understandable to a certain degree, but when does it go too far? I was sad over the loss of such a fine specimen of human that was Heath Ledger on Tuesday, however, my younger sister pointed something out to me that made me realize something. I tried to make a comment to her telling her that I thought his death was sad because he was portrayed in a different light than many actors. He seemed to stay out of the party scene and also appeared to be a great father to his two year old daughter.

My sister responded saying "I understand that. It's just that people die every single day. Good people who do have kids and who are a good example to society even if they are of the smallest status they still make a difference. I'm not saying that Heath Ledger wasn't a good person, I'm saying that he wasn't the only good person." Wow for a fifteen year old she is pretty good. The point is that we constantly look to celebrities to lay down mores in our society. When one of those celebrities goes against the grain and does good things with their lives we becoming intrigued. Heath, I am sure was a great person, but so are so many other people and we are not mourning their death on a national level.

My question is, do we have a different level of standards when it comes to celebrities? Should we be over-involved in the death of an actor if we are not equally as in involved in that of a common well-moralled man? Or maybe the question is was he just a man who happend to be famous and his death is more of a representation of all of those like him who just did not live in the limelight?