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Les,

1. Posts like yours in the Brittany Murphy thread will end up prolonging its existence on the front page, which kind of defeats the purpose of the post.

2. I was trying to make a point, that we could either make a thread daily about the mass of tragic death that occurs worldwide each day, or we could periodically make threads about particular people that die that we've gotten to know in the slightest even if just on a TV/cinema screen, interviews, etc. I'm sorry to say this but the mass of tragic death that happens every day is not news - we all already know about it, and presumably others here besides Les and myself DO donate money and time to causes to help prevent some of that death. A particular person dying that we may have seen/gotten to know somewhat IS however news, like it or not. The 3 people you mentioned happened to all be in music. Speaking of which, how do you measure significant impact? Michael Jackson probably made a significantly bigger impact in music than Jimi Hendrix, but I personally would mourn the loss of a Jimi Hendrix more because of having more of an affinity to his music...but per you that would be stupid.

Anyhow, what makes an actor/actress any different just because you may not have seen their movies? In Brittany's case for example, she had a particularly moving role in Girl Interrupted (not a leading role but she has done numerous leading roles) that likely made an emotional impact on a lot of people considering her character commits suicide. So maybe she's not John Lennon, but she's not a nobody.

3. You assume my making this point means I do nothing in terms of charity or volunteerism. Fuck your assumption. I give to charity all the time (including ones that help children, though typically I target disaster relief when such disasters occur, especially in places where the necessary donations wouldn't be as likely to come), give a lot more than anyone I know, and have volunteered as well. Hell, I've given significant portions of money to charity at times when I myself wasn't in a stable financial spot, but knowing that there are others who needed help at the time and that doing what I could would make a difference. I'm GLAD you do what you do, I do it myself, and I wish more people did. That doesn't mean I am supposed to feel no emotion at all towards a celebrity dying, one that I liked a lot even if it was mostly what she did in the past and not recently. Sorry if that offends you but tough shit. I didn't even create that thread, I simply responded in it.

And yes, joke all you want but my brother having met her and confirmed she was a nice person does not mean I knew her, but I thought was significant enough to mention. If I was old enough to drive at the time, I would have gone up at least once to visit him on set and would possibly have met her as well, but alas I was 12-13 at the time. So to me at least in addition to enjoying her in her movies, I felt more impact than the typical celeb death, not to mention she's only 5 years older than I am. People so heavily mourned Heath Ledger's death but if not for his role as the joker, he was really only slightly a bigger celebrity than Brittany Murphy if that helps you at all. She may have had as many if not more leading roles in movies than he has as far as I'm aware, though his career was about to blossom further while her career was more or less on its way down. He was a brilliant actor and rightfully mourned, though you would obviously disagree.

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