I wonder if tonight celebrities are nervous, sleepless; walking about their mansions closing windows and locking doors. If, perhaps, this season of death weighs heavy on their thoughts, the summer long and littered with bodies.
Today I watched a roast of William Shatner in which Farrah Fawcett appeared. It was before the cancer left her ravaged but you could catch the leading edge of something – her arms looked thin, a tinge of desperation as she botched her speech one time, then again, finally lowering her head in uncomfortable laughter. She was having trouble with an errant bra strap and seemed distracted. At one point she said, “I’m not on anything!” exasperated and you wanted to believe her.
When I got home I was looking on YouTube for clips from the roast, but I couldn’t find any. Instead I found a series of commercials Farrah starred in for her line of shampoo. They were soft-focused with horses in fields and dogs on beaches. Her hair was blond and big, her teeth white and somehow very California.
It must be wonderful and terrible to be famous. And to have your own shampoo.