The line between 'public figure' and 'celebrity' has become severely blurred of late.
Just because someone is in the public eye, it doesn't necessarily mean they're a celebrity and nor should many of them want to be treated as such. Politicians and members of the Royal Family have been muddying these waters like dirty children recently.
It's a dangerous precedent to set - because once you invite the media in, you belong to them and there's no escape. Sure, fame can have its upsides (just look at Cheryl Cole), but it also comes with its downsides (just look at Ashley Cole).
This blog post isn't about real celebrities though, it's about public figures who shouldn't be treated as celebrities, but are seemingly trying to be. So I won't harp on about how much of a prat Ashley "Massive Prat" Cole is.
2010 is an election year and we all know what that means. Politicians will be doing everything they can to get good press over the next few months. The rumour mill has it that David Miliband is busily rehearsing a leotard-laden dance routine for the next walloping of Britain's Got Talent.
Last Sunday evening Gordon Brown appeared on an episode of This Is Your Life, minus the red book, and rebranded as a serious interview with Piers Morgan. It was effectively the modernday equivalent of kissing a baby.
For an hour, Piers fawned over his friend Gordon, so we shouldn't be surprised by the fact that Brown came out of it smelling like roses - it will have been on that premise that "his people" agreed to the interview in the first place.
But was it the right thing to do? The polls suggest it was - support (another word for sympathy) for Brown has gone up considerably this week, which has left David Cameron scrambling for something trendy to talk about, like Lily Allen. Polls aside, if we look long term, the precedent Brown has now set is a bad one for him and for politics. If something as devastating as losing a child were to ever happen to Gordon Brown again, chances are the media will think they can be a part of it because he's let them in before.
A classic example of the road politics is seemingly trying to go down is the Royal Family. For years they've been appearing on covers of glossy magazines and for years now we've been treating them as celebrities. Can anyone even remember what it is they do? No, the questions we now ask are: "Have Harry and Chelsy split?" and "Has Wills dyed his hair?" These are all questions that don't need answering, yet the media obsesses over them anyway. Why? Because they can. They've been invited to the royal party, so now they can do as they please.
In some instances these public figures bring it on themselves, but the media itself obviously has to take a major portion of the blame. By forcing us to focus on what Gordon Brown is talking about outside of politics, we're being distracted from what we need to be focusing on, which is his ability to run the country. Amidst all of the tripe we are about to be slung in the next few months, we need to look at the real issue and answer the important question - who is the best person to run our country?
And, so as not to come across as biased against Labour in the run up to an election, I'll leave you with this cringeworthy video of David Cameron doing the dishes as we just happen to "drop in".