Gossip has never changed. It is entirely dependent on human nature. It just now has a larger audience because of mass media. And it will probably only be disseminated more rapidly and widely because of the instant idea of the Internet, e-mail, and so on. Technology will drive gossip just as the print and photo media have driven it since their invention. But gossip and celebrity worship always existed. People were gossiping in caves, and they went right on gossiping in enclaves and families. As lyricist Alan Jay Lerner wrote in "Camelot" — “I wonder what the king is doing tonight?” People are always wondering what the king is doing, or whoever passes for the king, and they also like to gossip about their lovers, spouses, children, in-laws and neighbors. You can’t change that.

I would love to see print media endure and flourish in a healthier manner, but I wonder. I think it will always endure to some extent. There will always be people who want to hold a book or magazine or newspaper in their hands. But the wonders of technology are multifold and continue to astound us. The only way it would stop would be if there is some environmental or physical problem in the old world that interrupts electricity and communication. We certainly don’t hope for that. An international cataclysm, a nuclear war worldwide, an asteroid hitting earth — any one of those events could change the gossip media celebrity culture for quite a long while.

For now, there is already an absolute plethora of bullshit, manufactured photography, and speculation passing for gossip, and it will probably increase, because there is a demand for it and people will pay for it. You could stop the taking of pictures, the intrusions into private life, the non-stop gossip, and speculation about celebrities only if somehow you stopped the democratic idea and interfered with free speech. This already happens in more backward, under-developed societies or more religious ones, but in America, the sky’s the limit. People can say what they want and print what they want – the laws of libel and slander in America are quite limited.

Our icons in ten years will be the same that we celebrate now – movie and TV stars, sports stars, great and low actors, and people famous for being famous, as well as a certain low-grade interest in true scientists, world leaders, real artists; in other words, the people we substitute for what once passed for royalty, or leaders, or forceful pioneers (I’m thinking of Lindberg, one of the first American celebrities.)

People are always looking for their betters, or what passes for their betters — people who are richer, better looking, sexier, more athletic, more famous than themselves.

Let’s just hope that our future icons will not turn out to be dictators and tyrants. This is the cult of worship now, for instance, in North Korea. We don’t hope for that kind of celebrity worship. It’s better if we stick with the old tried-and-true ideas.