It Can Always Be Worse

Okay, sorry, but who else laughed when they heard about Madonna falling off her horsey yesterday? I wasn't laughing at her, I promise you, because I adore Madonna (adored her to the point of desperately wanting to be her in middle school). And I wasn't laughing because I thought falling off one's high horse--literally--was an interesting metaphor for someone who has reached the pinnacle of her career. And I wasn't laughing thinking, "silly Madonna, tricks are for kids, and you're no kid no more -- happy birthday!" And I wasn't laughing because I thought, "huh, so a red string bracelet doesn't really serve as well as a riding helmet."

(Ow, my head!)



No. I was laughing because NOT ONE of the broadcasts that I saw reporting the story could resist adding a comparison to Christopher Reeve. "Could have been a lot worse," they all noted, then flashed to a picture of Superman on a breathing apparatus.

So what's the lesson here? Is it that we should be grateful that when we fall off a horse on our 47th birthday, painfully break multiple bones and have the embarrassing incident broadcast globally as "breaking* news" (*pardon the pun), we should be happy? Is it that Christopher Reeve is the only other person ever to have fallen off a horse? Or is it that in the entertainment biz, if you're going to do something foolish, you better be sure you take it to the next level because otherwise you're destined to be compared to someone or something that was even more of a crowd pleaser?

*In other news, we want to thank our amazing girlfriends who are touring SHAKING on the GCC this week! Here are the sites of our friends who are posting things about our book on their sites today:
E. Lockhart's Boyfriend List(I have a "Boyfriend List" posted there today, fyi!)
Melanie Lynne Hauser
Ann Marie
Kathleen O’Reilly
Alison Kent
Andi Buchanan
*and special thanks again to Alison Pace, hilarious author of If Andy Warhol Had a Girlfriend, whom we just love!