Clooney has good reason – he and his girlfriend were injured in a crash a few months ago. He told Entertainment Tonight of the paparazzi: “They're not trying to catch me doing something stupid, they're trying to create me doing something stupid.”

It reminds me of some of the things that were said right after Princess Diana’s death. It was reported in the media that her eldest son Prince William had vowed, as a younger child, to protect his mum from the chasing photographers. At a young age he had discerned the danger his mother was in, just for being the world’s most beloved female figure. (And when she died, that title passed to Oprah, by the way, I allege!) And even that night that Diana and her boyfriend Dodi al Fayed died in Paris, you could see from the news reports that the evening had been all about plans and precautions and security and avoiding the paparazzi, as the twosome shuffled to and from the Ritz. It was a 24-hour part of the princess’ life.

It’s the age-old dilemma: The mania is not going to die down unless we stop buying and watching, unless we stop feeding the hungry monster. And will we? I tend to doubt it. Though I have a pointed distaste for gossip of any kind, I have to admit my own guilt of sometimes wanting to look. It’s human nature, isn’t it?