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Celebrity scandals: Who cares? 「名人醜聞」閃一邊

Lohan arriving for a screening of her movie Bobby in Venice, Italy, Sept. 5, 2006. 琳賽•羅涵去年九月五日在義大利威尼斯，出席她主演的電影《刺殺巴比》放映會。 PHOTO: AFP

Celebrities behaving badly? If you do not care, you have company.

The vast majority of Americans believe there is too much news coverage of celebrity scandals, and most blame the media for the attention paid to the stars' trials and tribulations, a new survey has found.

Nearly nine out of 10 adults said celebrity scandals receive "too much" news coverage, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Only two percent said the subject receives "too little" coverage, and eight percent said scandals get the "right amount" of press.

The survey also found that 54 percent of those who say celebrity news coverage is excessive blame news organizations. Around one-third of those surveyed found the public at fault for paying attention and 12 percent said the public and the media both are to blame.

"It is a bit of, 'what came first, the chicken or the rotten egg,'" said Jeff Jarvis, who teaches journalism at the City University of New York. "Both are to blame."

The survey found that 12 percent of the public followed the story of Paris Hilton's brief release from jail in June "more closely than any other."

But people may be showing signs of scandal fatigue. The survey found fewer than 10 percent followed the story on Lindsay Lohan's arrest on a second drunk driving charge "very closely," while around 20 percent followed it "fairly closely."

Jarvis said attention to celebrity scandals might fade, but will not go away. "I think there really can be waves of fatigue, but that comes back the other way," he said.(AP)

名人表現亂七八糟？如果你也不愛這種新聞，那你有伴囉。

一項新調查發現，大多數美國人認為「名人醜聞」的報導過多，並怪罪於媒體太注意明星的案件和麻煩。

根據皮優大眾與媒體研究中心指出，十個成人中有九個人說，名人醜聞獲得太多新聞報導。只有百分之二的人覺得報導太少了，有百分之八的人覺得剛剛好。

該調查也發現認為報導太多的人中，百分之五十四責怪新聞媒體。三分之一的受訪者怪罪民眾的關注，而百分之十二說民眾和媒體兩邊都有錯。

「這就有點像『先有雞或先有蛋』的問題，」紐約市立大學新聞學老師傑夫:賈維斯說。「兩者都有錯。」

該調查發現百分之十二的人，對芭莉絲:希爾頓六月份出獄的消息比其他事更關切。

但人們有可能正顯示出「醜聞疲乏」的跡象。該調查發現只有不到百分之十的人，很關心琳賽:羅涵二度酒醉駕車遭到逮捕，約百分之二十的人對此事稍有關注。

賈維斯說對名人醜聞的關注會逐漸消退，但不會消失。「我認為可能真的有疲乏現象，但還是會恢復的。」（翻譯：張愛弟）

TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 1. scandal n. 醜聞 (chou3 wen2) 例: There have been many scandals involving Britney Spears. (小甜甜布蘭妮醜聞纏身。) 2. tribulation n. 苦難 (ku3 nan4) 例: Harry faced many tribulations before reaching the top. (哈利在成功前歷經許多苦難。) 3. coverage n. 報導 (bao4 dao3) 例: Coverage of traffic jams during major holidays in Taiwan irritates me because every holiday, the situation is the same. (台灣假日塞車的新聞令我很生氣，因為每個假日情形都一樣糟。) 4. fatigue n. 疲勞 (pi2 lao2) 例: The mountain climber overcame fatigue to reach the peak. (登山者克服了疲勞登上山頂。)

SAY WHAT? 說說看 Which came first...?　先有哪一個…？ A question that's baffled philosophers and people with too much time on their hands for centuries is "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Professor John Brookfield of the University of Nottingham says the egg must have come first. He argues that an individual's genetic makeup determines its species, and the first creature that could be called a chicken would have earlier been a creature inside an egg that had the same genetic makeup, so it was also a chicken. 許多世紀以來一個困擾哲學家和世人的問題是：「先有雞或先有蛋」？ 英國諾丁漢大學約翰:布克菲得教授說一定是先有蛋。他提出個體的基因組成將會決定其物種，而第一隻能被稱為雞的生物，早先一定是在某顆蛋裡、具同樣基因成份的生物，所以才有雞。

OUT LOUD 對話練習 Hal: Did you hear that Lindsay Lohan is going to rehab again? Eugene: No, I don't really follow the gossip columns. Hal: Neither do I, but you'd have to be living under a rock not to hear about Lohan's latest antics. Eugene: There's just so much scandal coverage that I'm immune to it now. Hal: I wish I had your immune system. 賀爾：你有聽說琳賽:羅涵又進勒戒所了嗎？ 尤金：沒，我不看八卦報導。 賀爾：我也不看啦，但除非你住在大石頭下，否則很難不聽到她的醜事吧。 尤金：醜聞報導太多了，我現在都對它們免疫啦。 賀爾：真希望我能有你的免疫系統。 living under a rock　住在石頭下 Somebody who is living under a rock has no clue about the latest news and gossip. For example, "Professor Smith is living under a rock. He doesn't even know who Justin Timberlake is." 「Living under a rock」是住在石頭下，表示某人對最近的新聞、八卦完全不了解。例如：「史密斯教授就像住在石頭下，他連小天王賈斯汀都不認識。」

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