A Sea of Stars

Washington, D.C.—The dancer and actor, Gregory Hines, was telling me there were so many homeless people in his Manhattan neighborhood that he felt compelled to come here for the next day’s “Housing Now!” march on the Mall. As I scribbled dutifully in my reporter’s notebook, an elderly woman tapped Hines on the shoulder. “Are you Dick Gregory?” she asked.

Thus the problem: the Left is suffering from a surfeit of celebrities, and as a consequence the currency of stardom itself has been devalued. The elderly woman had never heard of Gregory Hines and, since she had paid $150 to come to this “Housing Now!” cocktail party in a Capitol Hill hotel on the promise of meeting stars (250 of them, according to the press releases), her disappointment was palpable. “Where are they?” she asked, with a slight stomp of her foot, after Hines had moved on. As if in answer, a tall, handsome man approached and gestured to my notebook.

About the Author

Andrew Ferguson

Andrew Ferguson, a former columnist for NR, is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Featured Tags

Washington, D.C.—The dancer and actor, Gregory Hines, was telling me there were so many homeless people in his Manhattan neighborhood that he felt compelled to come here for the next day’s “Housing Now!” march on the Mall. As I scribbled dutifully in my reporter’s notebook, an elderly woman tapped Hines on the shoulder. “Are you Dick Gregory?” she asked.

Thus the problem: the Left is suffering from a surfeit of celebrities, and as a consequence the currency of stardom itself has been devalued. The elderly woman had never heard of Gregory Hines and, since she had paid $150 to come to this “Housing Now!” cocktail party in a Capitol Hill hotel on the promise of meeting stars (250 of them, according to the press releases), her disappointment was palpable. “Where are they?” she asked, with a slight stomp of her foot, after Hines had moved on. As if in answer, a tall, handsome man approached and gestured to my notebook.