Schadenfreude: Pure and Pointy

Britney Spears
Anna Nicole Smith
Eva Longoria
Cameron Diaz
Sarah Jessica Parker
Dina Lohan
Rumer Willis
Spencer Pratt
Kristen Bell
Drew Barrymore

For the next six weeks, I will hope that these 10 celebrities will choose to use their lives in a way that will earn me points. For every pregnancy rumor, mental break, coupling and break-up, I will score a point. Simple schadenfreude. But, the worst possible kind...I gain, gain, gain.

Yes, another season of Celebrity Shit Club has begun. This morning, 10 women gathered in my house for brunch and our celebrity fantasy "football" draft. The conversation was limited to the text of other's lives. If someone deviated to novels or current events, they were quickly redirected.

Maybe I should be embarrassed. I kind of am. Especially when I will start earning points for Brit Brit's break from reality. But, whenever I reveal my secret society, my own personal Masons, I am greeted with raised eyebrows and conspiring grins followed by the inevitable question..."Can I get in on the action?"

How quickly paper dolls and Barbies are replaced with living beings to act out our fantasies and fears. We move from actively constructing fantasy lines of couplings, break ups and wars to passively listening in. Is it that we live vicariously or use Brit Brit to justify our own moral superiority?