Volume 6, Issue 3 University of Houston
Stupid is as stupid does
Christian Schmidt
Opinion columnist
Why do people do stupid things? For four celebrities, it was a whim, naivete, lack of thought and lack of understanding. Here are the stories of four people who did stupid things. Please read on and learn from their mistakes.
Now most people have done stupid things while drunk. It happens. But most of us haven't gotten married on a whim. But that's just what pop superstar Britney Spears did early Saturday morning. Spears, partying the night away, got married to a childhood friend.
The marriage has since been annulled, and one can only hope Spears will learn from her mistake.
On to the second nominee for the most stupid celebrity …
News flash: If you are young, attractive, relatively famous and extremely rich and you make a sex tape with your boyfriend, it's going to find its way onto the Internet. And that's just what happened to Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton fortune, budding TV superstar -- and now Internet porn star.
A tape she made with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon that shows the two engaging in several sexual acts has been made widely available online over the past few months. She says she's embarrassed and angry, but he says he didn't release the tape. None of that really matters now.
Of course, there are ways to avoid such things. Don't have sex or don't tape yourself having sex.
On a personal note, my heart goes out to Hilton; no one should have his or her private endeavors broadcast to millions.
And don't think it's just the young ladies doing stupid things. Our third entry in the stupidity award is someone who most people already knew was stupid, or at least crazy.
It's the Crocodile Hunter, otherwise known as Steve Irwin.
Irwin, who voluntarily handles dangerous animals, including crocodiles and venomous snakes, on his TV show, regularly makes decisions most people wouldn't consider smart. But what he did recently crossed the line for even his most diehard fans. Irwin fed a large, and apparently hungry, crocodile while holding his infant son. The crocodile snapped food out of Irwin's hands, just inches from the child.
No one has more experience with such animals than Irwin, but there's little doubt the child was in danger. Nonetheless, a few feet from a large, voracious predator is hardly the place for a very young child, regardless of other factors.
And the final nominee for the most stupid celebrity goes to Pete Rose, the infamous gambler, longtime liar, and oh yeah, he played a bit of baseball too.
After more than a decade of denials, Rose has finally admitted what everyone already knew, that he bet on Major League Baseball games, including those of the Cincinnati Reds, the team he managed.
As Rose has (quite correctly) pointed out, the lifetime banishment from the sport he received is a more severe penalty than he would have received for a drug or murder charge. But what Rose has never realized, and will probably never realize, is that he violated the one rule in professional sports that really matters -- don't violate the integrity of the game.
They're all stupid, and nobody wins when they're stupid.
Schmidt, a senior English major who urges you
not to
do anything stupid, can be reached at Christ1021@aol.com.