Fame

Whether it turns out that he died of heart disease, a cocktail of potent prescription drugs or just years of indulgence and excess, one verdict is inescapable: What really killed Michael Jackson was an overdose of showbiz values. Like so many child stars before him, from Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr. to Tatum O'Neal and River Phoenix and Lindsay Lohan, Jackson never found himself a home in the real world.

Can John McCain catch a break? In a bid to sway voters who have doubted his ability to shepherd the economy, McCain plucked Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher out of obscurity during the final presidential debate Wednesday and assured him of an asterisk in the history of the 2008 presidential campaign. "Joe the Plumber," said McCain, was just the kind of guy Barack Obama's tax plans would hurt and just the kind of guy his plan would help. Turns out that is not the case.

A few days before his 90th birthday, Bebo Valdes contemplates his memories and melodies on a hotel terrace with a view of waves dancing in an African breeze. Valdes puts aside the coffee he is nursing and examines two CDs. One is "Lagrimas Negras" ("Black Tears"), the surprise crossover sensation that made him an international star four years ago.

In a recent interview designed to gin up interest in her new webzine, the Daily Beast, Tina Brown -- former editor of such buzz-infused publications as Vanity Fair and the New Yorker -- offered a keen precis on the Gospel of Buzz. Her interlocutor asked Brown how she dealt with the nasty jabs and vicious smears and mean-spirited quips that have come flying her way over the years, as her employment fortunes rose and fell and rose.

RICKY GERVAIS was hanging out with some friends here recently when he experienced another brush with the uncomfortable byproduct of fame. A group of Australian tourists approached the British comedian and asked casually, "Hey, you want to come have a beer with us?" Gervais adopted a look of befuddlement as he recalled the exchange. "I'm with friends," he told them with disbelief. "No, I don't want to go have a beer with you." The Australians seemed surprised.

When she competes, Allison Stokke's entire focus is the path in front of her, a narrow stretch of crushed rock leading to a bar balancing between stanchions that soar toward the sky. And when she dashes down that runway, her hands grasping a 13-foot pole that will propel her, head over heels, she doesn't even notice the explosion of flashes from hundreds of cameras focused on her.

LAS VEGAS -- For Freddie Roach, it was like being a hard-working father returning home early from a long business trip. Instead of being greeted by his children's adoring hugs, there was a surprise teenage party in progress, with neighbor kids sipping the home's finest champagne, smoking dad's cigars and pouring beers from mom's orange juice carafe.

Before he gunned down eight people in an Omaha mall Dec. 5, Robert A. Hawkins left a note explaining his actions: His life had been ruined by a break-up and job loss, but now at least he was going to be famous. Except, of course, that he isn't. The horror of a young man committing murder to achieve notoriety is twisted into grim irony by the fact that his story was soon lost in the frothing, sucking news churn, replaced by the Colorado shootings.

LINDA CARROLL isn't famous, but it's impossible to frame her life without the strange and often cruel influence of celebrity. She is Courtney Love's mother but has never spoken publicly about her oldest daughter. And her biological mother is Paula Fox, the award-winning children's author, esteemed literary novelist and memoirist. But Carroll, 61, now a therapist in Corvallis, Ore.