In a portion of a piece about the downish aspects of being a movie star called “Being Famous Mostly Sucks,” N.Y. Times columnist David Carr (a.k.a. “the Bagger’) writes that “the money is nice and all, but what if you want to just be with your pals and have a good time? That is never going to happen if you leave the house.

“It’s not that fans are trying to bum you out by getting an arm on you. They are just being themselves, which is to be riveted by the sight of someone who they have seen on their television. Everyone who approaches a famous person has a need for validation. I saw her, him or it. We had a moment. She seemed really great or horrible or freakish. We all want a taste of this, not so that we can savor it, but so that we can report back to our friends. And some of the motives, especially of the press, are less than friendly.

“As a writer, the Bagger has found that just about the time he is ready to sink his fangs into somebody, the area he is about to chomp on is already full of bite marks. That does not excuse a freak like Christian Bale, who is on the web dripping in vulgar entitlement, but it makes the whole celebrity disengagement a lot easier to understand.”