Another sad celebrity ending

WB recently discovered yet another Hollywood death this year. While we managed to get over the initial shock in about five seconds, we still can't shake the fact that we didn't see it coming. Although the disease had been slowly worsening for years, it never really hit us that death was imminent until the cold evidence of it saturated our TV screens.

It began innocently enough with toothpaste commercial. But in just four short years, it progressed quickly, transforming itself into multiple commercials, disguised as clothing, milk, towels, and eventually, as the end was near, more toothpaste, cars, sunscreen, and even a prescription eyelash enhancer.

Yes, Brooke Shields' career is officially dead, and we are in mourning. Not because we'll miss it, but because it means we will most likely be suffering through even more of her omnipresent commercials in the future. We can handle the car ads, but we really don't care that she sunburns easily, has germs in her mouth, and can't grow her own eyelashes. In fact, we're a little embarrassed for her.



Celebrities suddenly appearing in several commercials in just a few years is always a sure sign that their careers are headed steadily to the has-been file. True, in Brooke's defense you could counter she has always been in commercials, and when she appeared in a new one in 2000, it had been many years since her last one, so there was no worry. But then came one more in '03, and another in '04, then '06, then '07, and then two in '08 and three in '09, and we knew this was more than the normal, tolerable, unremarkable celeb-in-an-ad pattern. We were witnessing the end of an acting career.

Now all we can do is remember what used to be and hope we're not the only ones breaking this obituary. For Brooke's sake, we hope someone else can deliver the message, maybe someone like Tom Cruise, who has always known more about Brooke than she knows about herself, and can let her down gently.