Mariah Carey is about to have a baby with father Nick Cannon.
Like celebrities from years past, Carey is posing for the magazines with child, baring all before she bears her son.
Father Cannon is very uncomfortable with the whole scheme. "I don't think kids should be looking at naked people that early in life." He is the father; his input matters.
Still, Carey is going to pose for the camera.
Her reason: "I want to share this moment with my true fans."
The very idea of "true fans" is very troubling. What constitutes a "true" fan, one who isfor one day, week, month, year, fanatic about a celebrity, will move on to another obsession in a short time.
Fans by their nature follow ephemeral things: fads, trends, and people. Mariah Carey's fans love her for her music, her image, and her trend-setting, all of which will change in time.
Motherhood, however, is a status beyond stardom, a responsibility which cannot be shared. The intimacy which Carey presumes between herself and her "true" fans is simple unfounded and nonsensical.
Besides, some realities are simply to intimate too be understood on a public scale; in most cases, it is just inappropriate to share them.