How Much Do You Want to Know

Former child television star Gary Coleman, who played Arnold on “Diff’rent Strokes,” was booked by Hawthorne police on suspicion of assault and battery after allegedly punching an autograph seeker. The 4-foot-8-inch Coleman, 30, now works as a mall security guard.

Do you really care?

The headlines are filled with details of celebrities’ dates, divorces and drug use. Such in-depth examination of celebrities’ lives has made some stars duck for cover. A publicist admitted that he intentionally misrepresented where Linda McCartney died, just to buy the family time to mourn privately. In Capitol Hill testimony, television stars Paul Reiser and Michael J. Fox told of being dogged relentlessly by photographers. Exactly how great is the public’s appetite for celebrity gossip? RACHEL FISCHER asked area youths how much they want to know about celebrities and their private lives.

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BRYAN LAU

18, senior, Santa Monica High School

Family matters shouldn’t be in the papers. But as far as scandals and crimes go, people should know about the incident if it involves a public figure who others look up to.

It’s important that celebrities watch themselves because it’s not good if they affect people negatively. At the same time, I wouldn’t watch a show or buy a paper just to see what a [famous] person is up to.

A lot of things they put in the news, I disagree with. (I personally) disagree with homosexuality, I disagree with prostitution. If Eddie Murphy picked up a prostitute, it doesn’t mean he’s not funny anymore. I would say that maybe he isn’t such a good role model or maybe he doesn’t have such good character.

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JONATHAN NEWMAN

18, senior, Beverly Hills High School

It’s none of our business. Would you want your personal issues known by the whole nation? That’s why movie stars, when people ask them for an autograph, say no and are always upset because everyone’s involved in their lives. An average citizen on the street is not asked, “What’s your sexual preference?”

If you’re a movie star or an athlete and get caught smoking marijuana or have a domestic problem, how are you supposed to settle these issues and get help if you’re embarrassed by the whole world knowing?

“Entertainment Tonight” is entertainment; you’re getting entertained by, like, other people’s tragedies. I think it’s totally disgusting. That’s what killed Princess Diana--that fascination.

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ENGELBERT KOSCHORRECK

20, Verdugo Hills

Celebrity gossip catches my attention. I read about it at the store or at a newsstand, but I also think celebrities should have some kind of privacy.

And they create things, like with Frank Gifford. [Sports figure Gifford, husband of television personality Kathie Lee Gifford, was caught in an apparent hotel-room liaison in 1997 with a woman who claimed to have been set up by a tabloid to woo him into sex.]

The interest has built up over the years because people always wonder what it’s like to be a celebrity. For some reason, you get the picture of them being different than us. But in reality, they’re just people and they have lives just like us.

Sometimes, the scandals do shock me, though. When Robert Downey Jr. went to jail, I couldn’t believe that someone who’s famous, who has everything, could go ahead and be addicted to drugs like that. His public image is just destroyed.

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EMANUEL JOHNSON

27, third-year law student, UCLA

Celebrities deserve a certain level of privacy, but at the same time they benefit from a lack of it. It’s a difficult question. What celebrities do on their own time is not my concern, but there is a morbid curiosity to read all those magazines. It’s like having a sore on the inside of your mouth; you know how stupid it is to touch it, but you just have to.

I wouldn’t want anyone to question me outside of what I do professionally. I’m going to be an attorney soon, but what I’ll choose to do beyond and outside of my job is really my own business.

Celebrities complain when their privacy is invaded, but that’s factored in with how they’re compensated financially. They’re compensated way beyond the average person because they’re in the limelight. So to say that celebrities don’t want notoriety is a bit of a contradiction. When it’s an issue of public health or public concern such as a criminal trial, then the public certainly needs to know. If it has nothing to do with public health or safety, we don’t need to know.