The arrogance of celebrity now seems epidemic in this country, and we as a society are much the worse for it.

Thanks to the immediacy of TV, radio and the Internet and the “validity” that those media can confer, almost anyone can be a celebrity, no matter how little known or lightly regarded. Without a royal family to alternately make googly eyes over or to despise, we make ordinary folks into celebrities, whether they be actors, singers, TV personalities, sports stars or even politicians.

But carrying the cult of celebrity to its illogical extreme, we arrive soon at the arrogance of celebrity, where nothing that celebrities do or say can’t be forgiven, no matter how perverse or beyond the pale of normal behavior.

To those who revel in their own celebrity—and there are many—no manner of dress is too outrageous, no conduct too unbecoming, no words too obscene, no behavior too unlawful, no comments too petty or mean-spirited.

In other words, anything goes.

Of course, the definition of celebrity has now been expanded to include anyone who has their 15 minutes of fame—for good or for ill—which means that one of the morons who populate the likes of the Jerry Springer-type shows carries equal weight on the celebrity scale with the firefighter who saves three kids from an inferno.

In recent weeks and months, we’ve been treated, ad nauseam, to the likes of:

•Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan. I’ve lumped this terrible trio together because they’re darn near interchangeable, it seems. Hilton’s a spoiled little rich girl who’s now an ex-jailbird. Spears, when much younger, was seen as a sweet, nice pre-teen girl. And Lohan also has somehow decided that the “bad girl” persona suits her better than being like anyone normal.

•Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump. Here it is, folks, the feud that will never die. It’s kind of entertaining, in a barroom brawl sort of way, to see these two self-absorbed creatures go at one another, trading jabs and barbs in the media and putting Barbara Wa-Wa right in the middle. Rosie really believes that her opinions, shall we say, trump, all others while the blustering Donald just doesn’t get it that his disparaging Rosie makes her look (shudder) sympathetic. Bottom line, as the Trumpster would say, is that no one cares about him and Rosie. Both should be fired from their positions in celebritydom.

•Tank Johnson. A lot of people cared about him—his coaches, his general manager, many of his teammates and Bears fans. And the Tankster figured, apparently, that his celebrity, if not his prowess on the field, would somehow get him off the hook. Celebrity didn’t keep him out of jail; it didn’t keep him from an eight-game suspension imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell; it didn’t keep a cop in Arizona from stopping him for impaired driving; and it didn’t keep the Bears from doing the right thing and tanking Tank.

•Dennis Rodman. If anyone deserves to be permanently muzzled, it’s this walking, talking testament to bad hair, bad clothes, bad rings and bad tattoos. Once a great rebounder for the Pistons and the Bulls, Rodman has become one of the worst kind of celebrities: a tired, worn-out, shell of a man with no sense, no opinions and no future that even a has-been celebrity would want.

•Ozzie Guillen: When the Sox won the World Series two years ago, Ozzie was Chicago’s hottest celebrity, kind of the baseball version of the tough-talking Mike Ditka. While not exactly cute and cuddly, Ozzie was honest to a fault, didn’t coddle his players and spoke his mind, albeit sometimes in coarse language. Last year, despite 92 wins for the Sox, he wasn’t quite so cuddly but more than a bit snappish. Now, in this season of discontent for the South Siders, Ozzie and his shtick seem to be wearing thin. He might be the next celebrity who used to be.

Apart from sometimes outrageous behavior, styles of dress and huge egos, what all the aforementioned seem most to have in common is that they really believe in the cult of celebrity, the prime edict of which apparently is that what they say and do really matters.

Whether it’s a movie or a TV show or a business or a song or a game, it’s not the real world.

And what they have all forgotten is that celebrity is as transient as a moth in a flame. It burns bright and then is extinguished, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but eventually...poof!

Contact editor Don Kopriva at dkopriva@thebusinessledger.com or at 630-428-8788.