The Eternal Teeny-Bopper

     It was always thus. I suppose psychologists would say that some possible causes of fawning celebrity worship are an essential loneliness, the lack of a romantic attachment, or the desire for an outlet for untapped affection. My hopeless/hopeful romantic nature rarely had a real-life person on which to indulge itself, so it turned to fantasies in the form of celebrities. All quite controlled and sane, mind you. I did not even ever save up my allowance to attend a David Cassidy concert, where I would have been one in an unruly, undignified mass of screaming teen mimis. No, I never saw David in person until I was a relatively sedate adult, in a performance of the musical Time, which played in London's West End in the late '80s.



David Cassidy in Time

     Before David Cassidy, there was Bobby Sherman, with whom I became enamored by watching him in the old TV series Here Come the Brides. Actually, he shared my 11-year-old heart with his costar, David Soul. Posters of them adorned my walls until Cassidy usurped them both.

L to R: Bobby Sherman, Robert Brown, David Soul as the Bolt brothers Jeremy, Jason, and Joshua

     It was Cassidy, however, that inspired the budding writer in me. In junior high, during the four-season run of The Partridge Family, I wrote several short stories – "fan fic," as it's now called – based on the character of Keith. I dreamed of sending them to the series' producers in hope they might make actual episodes of them. I dreamed big. At the time, I had no idea that this kind of writing was widespread, or would become a popular genre. Several of my Twitter friends today have blogs on which they post their own fan lit, mostly based on television characters. If one aspires to write, any and all writing serves to exercise the pen, but I think my juvenile attempts at fan lit should be left on my closet shelf.  

     We never lose the propensity to fawn over celebrites, however, no matter what age. I have a sister who in her 60s is every bit as avid a fan of David Cook as I was at 13 of David Cassidy. She is also even more fixated on Fred Astaire than I am on Cary Grant. And I have a friend, slightly younger than I, whose admiration for Michael Jackson led her to start a Facebook page devoted to him. Another Facebook friend, in her 30s, has a big thing for David Bowie and often posts videos of him. (My, there are a lot of Davids!) And how many grown women out there are obsessed with Elvis Presley? We are all, young, old, or middle-aged, susceptible.

     Um, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of David Hyde Pierce. But he adorns the wall of my computer, not my bedroom. Therein lies the difference that age makes.