People
While we understand the desire to create a narrative that makes the day’s events make sense, imputing this much significance to a chance encounter–one of the millions that delay or expedite one’s progress each morning–seems a strange, ugly consequence of celebrity culture. In the wake of Sept. 11, a number of celebrity-centric missed encounters flooded out as Americans tried to make sense of it all: Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and a Real World cast member were among those who decided not to fly that day, at the last minute. The impulse to put a (familiar) face on tragedy is easy, but it’s also rather missing the point–and to compare a life-saving encounter with one of Ms. Paltrow’s movies (the missed-train reverie Sliding Doors, naturally) is a fairly tasteless way to commemorate 9/11.
ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_