by ruth wallace

Last updated 11:40, Monday, 30 June 2008

What shocks me the most about our country is our constant need to know about celebrities. OK, so they may entertain us, that's what they are paid ridiculous amounts of money for, but once they have done their job they should disappear from the public eye for a while.

Indulging in celebrity gossip is difficult to escape. I admit that I am guilty of purchasing gossip magazines from time to time. But there are limits as to what we should know about them, because sometimes it's just pointless information.

Recently, Manchester United player Wayne Rooney married childhood sweetheart Coleen Mcloughlin. By now, you would think that news of the newlyweds would have died down. Well, think again. The papers are now following them whilst they are on their honeymoon in Las Vegas, sitting by the pool and soaking up the sun. Shouldn't they be allowed to have the right to privacy and allow us to have a Wayne Rooney free week? Why does anybody need or want to know about their honeymoon? Who cares? Certainly not me. It's not important.

How can this information be newsworthy anyway? At the same time, British born Neil Entwistle has just been found guilty of murdering his wife and nine month old baby, in their family home in Massachusetts, 18 months ago. Now that is news.

To show that I am not the only one who thinks the same, a recent tourist guide book describes England as “an over-weight, alcopop-swilling, sex and celebrity obsessed country”. I was obviously proud of my country when I read that! In actual fact, Malta is the country in the EU with the most over-weight people and to suggest we drink a lot, well, we aren't the only ones.

But, England being celebrity obsessed is an accurate statement. If news is the antics which take place on the Rooneys’ honeymoon, then I think as a nation, we have a problem.