when fame goes to the head....

For once, I am actually appalled by something in the media. Literally appalled. Like, vomit rising up my throat and stinging my eyeballs appalled.

Kate Gosselin is going to be on the next season of "Dancing With the Stars."

My disgust doesn't stem from her nasty haircut (which I now see is a thing of the past; thanks, People Magazine!) or her particularly nauseating persona. No, it's not those feelings that stir my ire for this fame monster.

Um, doesn't she have eight children? Isn't that a little time-consuming?

I'm not trying to hearken back to old attitudes. No, I don't think Kate Gosselin should be at home, waiting on all of them hand and foot.

God, no, don't even get me started on her slob of an ex-husband. I just feel badly for the children involved.

Similarly, look at the recent Tiger Woods fiasco. That's a private matter, isn't it—he cheats on his wife, the family suffers and has to work things out somehow. It happens all over the world every day.

Maybe not with a Swedish supermodel wife (why would you cheat on that? WHY?!) and with dozens of women, but yeah. Things like that happen, and it's really no one's business except anyone who is immediately involved.

And it may sound like a stale cliché at this point, but think of what Woods' kids are going to have to face someday (they're way too young now to be conscious of much).

They managed to stay out of the spotlight, but imagine: some other kid walks up to them at recess. They laugh and say something to the effect of "So, I hear your dad, haha, I hear he got around!"

Regardless of whether or not either of those kids understands that exchange, the damage is done.

In a way that I hope doesn't make me sound like James Dobson (God no!), I wish people would try and put family, something that is real and that matters, before all this publicity-seeking madness.

I wish that maybe a certain someone (cough) should give an extra thought before jumping aboard reality shows and other such things when her biggest claim to fame is the impressive amount of babies she bore.

As a third example, a tragic but more positive example, just remember Michael Jackson's children.

In this case, it was a matter of "The kids! The kids don't have a father now! How SAD!" And then the paparazzi braved any kind of miserable condition to snap one photo of them.

The kids themselves handled everything with the sort of aplomb most adults are sadly missing. They spoke at the funeral, before an international audience, and like their late father had wisely done throughout the span of his life, they laid low.

Fortunately, they are still being sheltered from the spotlight. And I hope they are never thrown into again until they feel they are ready.

I also hope they think about the consequences that can have.

We all like people to notice us and glorify the things we do. Whether we admit it or not, we all enjoy being put on a pedestal from time to time.

That's where the zeal for fame comes from. Fame is like a helpful pat on the back times a thousand.

Sure, some people can thrive off it. Not everyone, though.

And those who have no role in such a fate, like children, should be spared from its more harsh side effects.

Life is hard enough as it is; as normal people, we all know that.

Kate Gosselin has two nannies to watch over her kids.

Hopefully, one of them will tell the kids that.

MARCH 24, 2010