Because of talent in some particular field, some people are set above all others. It happens in all walks of life: politics, sports, academics, and yes, especially in the entertainment industry. Maybe it’s crass to say this, but I have a hard time finding sympathy for those who achieve these heights and then actively try to undo their success through bad behavior, drug abuse, and general hard living. While I can be empathetic to family and friends who have lost someone, I can’t get on board with efforts to lionize that person by choosing to ignore the decisions that lead them inexorably towards untimely death. Ultimately, we all live and die by the decisions we make. I’m less sympathetic when a so-called celebrity falls to their own bad decisions than I am for the tweekers on any street in West Baltimore. They, at least, didn’t have much of a choice to begin with.
So yeah, while the news channels are screaming that this is a big deal, all I’ve managed to see is a someone who was given the world and decided to throw it all away. Maybe it is a situation worthy of our collective sympathy, but I’m just not feeling it.
JEFFREYTHARP.COM 
I feel bad that we have lost someone of such tremendous talent and to be fair, we don’t know all the circumstances of her death just yet. What bothers me is that the ONLY thing you’ve heard about her in the last several years is her struggle with addiction and now that she’s dead, everybody is bowing down and talking about her like she was their best friend. Yes, its a shame, but not a surprise.
Im still not over the Len Bias death in 1986. Of course that may be due to the fact I was and still am a basketball fanatic. It is possible to be OCD over a sport? Anyway, the Celtics has just won the 86 championship and were poised to sign the guy who could and would have become the greatest player ever. Think of Mike Jordan as just so so. A singer? Im not feeling it either! 🙂