I wonder if Bill Pullman is nice.

      I'm not above giving advice that I myself would probably never take. But then again, I don't think any of us are. You've probably heard it said that you should never meet your heroes. At least I like to think you've all heard that. If not I'm guessing you're young. But I promise that's a thing people say. The reason being, the reality of who that person is won't likely match the ideal of them you have in your head. Well, I'm going to take it a step further. Not only should you probably never meet your heroes, but you should probably just avoid reading anything about them deeper than somewhat vague generalities.

 Believe it or not, there was a time when the public didn't have constant access to celebrities and the paparazzi wasn't really a thing. No one was able to read Dean Martin's constant drunken tweets, see footage of Dean Martin stumbling out of a club drunk on TMZ or see footage from someone's camera phone of Dean Martin going off on a racially insensitive, slurred, alcohol fueled rant.(For you kids, Dean Martin liked to drink). Point being, the constant access we have to famous people today is unprecedented. We can tweet directly to them and possibly get a response that didn't have to go through their handler or publicist. Which leads us to seeing things like Amanda Bynes unravel before our very eyes in 140 characters or less.

Now, I'm a firm believer that while everyone post-"The Greatest Generation" is generally bad examples of the human race...at the same time, human nature remains the same. For example, I have a feeling if Marilyn Monroe had access to social media and the overbearing paparazzi existed then, she wouldn't be treated as this "classy" role model for women(I still don't get it). In other words, she'd be mocked in the same way we mock pretty much any of the modern actresses or female celebrities. She'd post stupid things on Twitter. We'd see every dirty affair and there would possibly be a sex tape. Paris Hilton is seen as a "slut" and girls quote Marilyn Monroe on their facebook pages. Yeah, it's dumb. But the past is seen with rose tinted glasses...or lenses...or something. I don't remember the phrase. Shut up I hate you.

So to get back to my point, at one time "Never meet your heroes" had a different meaning. The chances of someone actually doing that was much slimmer and the ideals of who they were weren't necessarily effected by every rambling thought they had online or mistake they made caught on a phone. They were for the most part, what we would've seen on screen or read about. It was a romantic notion that they were classier, wiser ideals for us to look up to. Like Superman. Not the dirty truth. Like Batman.(ahem...sorry about that). Without the filter that is their publicists, limited access, etc, we'd know their views on everything and their personalities. Suddenly they may not be the lovable rascal or graceful beauty we see on TV. They're your smelly, idiot neighbor upstairs who yells a lot and has aggressive, awkward sex.

My advice to everyone now is not only never meet your heroes if you want to keep that untarnished image, but it's probably a good idea to try not to know too much about them as well. You may not want to read their Twitter feed or blog if they have one. Hey, some may be smart and keep things very general while keeping their private lives and views separate from the public image, and that's great. Other times you have someone turn into a political blowhard(well they are if you disagree with them) and you just have to think "Crap...I like them. Oh well.". And I assume if you do agree with them, you'll love them more.

(a note: I realize I'm focusing heavily on non-political figures and those who tend to only put out a product that's purely for entertainment. Obviously if you're heroes are political or religious figures, you won't care if they share their views on those subjects. Though they could still be jerks.)

Of course, anyone is entitled to offering up their views on political/religious issues, as long as they realize that if they're in the public eye, they'll most likely alienate half those people. And those of us that make up the general public have to realize they're people with thoughts just like us. If we don't want those thoughts to effect how we view that person, limit yourself to only the product they put out. Sometimes they put their more extreme views out there and it's unavoidable.(the whole Jim Carrey/Jenny McCarthy being anti-inoculations thing being one example). If you disagree with that movement, you may have been completely turned off by their involvement.(Though I doubt "hero" is a good term for either of them but let's play it fast and loose with the term just for this topic)


I hope that all makes some kind of sense.
I'm sure a lot of people would argue that making people like actors or writers out to be "heroes" isn't really healthy anyway, but shut up and don't ruin this post!



All that being said, I'd really like to meet Bill Murray. He's not really my hero but I can't exactly meet Jesus at the moment.