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The doings of the actually famous are chronicled by the local media, especially its six newspapers (three dailies, three weeklies). But because the actually famous are not numerous enough to fill the column inches, the media augment their ranks with the spuriously famous: people thrust into prominence to keep the gawkfest going. Many of these are morally and aesthetically as sightly as car wrecks, and they deserve as much credit for their notoriety as a skunk does for becoming road kill. The gold standard of spurious fame was set by Amy Fisher and the Buttafuocos. Now these urban Jukes and Kallikaks share space in the public mind with Henry Kissinger and Spike Lee (who, come to think of it, share space with each other). In Heaven, we

Mr. Brookhiser, an NR senior editor, is author most recently of Alexander Hamilton, American.

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The doings of the actually famous are chronicled by the local media, especially its six newspapers (three dailies, three weeklies). But because the actually famous are not numerous enough to fill the column inches, the media augment their ranks with the spuriously famous: people thrust into prominence to keep the gawkfest going. Many of these are morally and aesthetically as sightly as car wrecks, and they deserve as much credit for their notoriety as a skunk does for becoming road kill. The gold standard of spurious fame was set by Amy Fisher and the Buttafuocos. Now these urban Jukes and Kallikaks share space in the public mind with Henry Kissinger and Spike Lee (who, come to think of it, share space with each other). In Heaven, we

Mr. Brookhiser, an NR senior editor, is author most recently of Alexander Hamilton, American.