I had the occasion last week to spend some time with one of the most famous families in America. It was a normal work day, I was working in the lighting department on a photo shoot for an upcoming movie I'm about to start, and I headed off to Hollywood, Starbucks in hand. Now, I know a lot of famous (and infamous) people. I've spent a lot of 16 hour days holed up on some set in close proximity to some of the most recognizeable names in popular culture. These are the people whose love lives and sexual preferences are endlessly pondered in the supermarket lines and the E network. This particular star and his wife and new baby have been scrutinized ceaselessly  for the last year or so. Having been subjected involuntarily to these screaming headlines  ("BABY BORN IN SECRET CEREMONY!!!!") Even I wasn't sure what to expect. I arrived at the studio and was informed that we had like half a day to wait for the guy to arrive. "Typical", I thought. Everyone spoke in hushed tones about what was expected at zero hour and we did as much work as possible using a stand-in. Then, the moment arrived. Tension built. Production assistants raced around bearing coffee and mysterious clipboards full  of fluttering papers. Radios crackled. And.... There he was. I immediately recognized his profile. His hair,  unselfconciously, but perfectly mussed. Then... he turned to me, stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, How are you?, I'm ****"."   There was no golden aura around him. He didn't stick out his hand as if for me to bow and kiss it. He was just a guy doing a job, and meeting his coworkers. Now to read his press over the last year or so, you would expect him to have a third eye, or levitate more than walk. But, it was like meeting your neighbor from next door. And I in my normally jaded state of mind began to feel something new. A little bit of shame. When his wife appeared later with his child and was just as gracious, it grew and was tinged with a little sympathy. I had, ever so slightly bought into the headlines. The pictures of this couple in exotic Paris, London, and Rome, shielding their faces from the cameras had worked their intended effect on me also.  The headlines proclaiming the actor to be everything from gay to practically a Satanist had colored my perception of this man before I ever even met him. If I, who work with these people every day and see them as just people was affected by all the clamor, what must the world in general think of them? It's not like they're Paris Hilton, who daily gives her parents a reason to be embarassed. If you point a camera at anyone long enough, you'll see some freaky crap. As I spent more time with them, laughing and joking about everyday things, the whole celebrity culture we are force fed was once again revealed. It's a bunch of s**t. And I was a little mad. Mad on their behalf. I know, I know, they asked for it. But when did a sense of decorum and class on the part of the rest of us and our "celebrity news"  become something they no longer had a right to?