Well, the "secret" is out about Ellen De Generes. She's a Lesbian. But, uh, did anyone not know that, already? And besides, who really cares? Why make it a public issue, anyway?

Maybe Ellen needed some sort of validation via the mass media. Perhaps this was her method of dealing with a personal crisis.

Where did this business of celebrities, and then anyone, going public with personal difficulties come from?

I think it started in the early 1970's with Carol Burnett. It seems that her daughter, Carrie, was having all kinds of problems, and Carol and her husband just could not deal with them. What to do? Right! Go on national TV and whine in front of millions of people.

Suddenly, Carol became a hero. She was praised throughout the country for being so brave to go public with this dirty linen. I never understood how this was supposed to help Carrie, but I must have been too shallow.

An era of openness was thus created, that reached its nadir when nearly every celebrity on earth claimed to be molested as a child, or at least had a terribly dysfunctional family. Now that's entertainment!!

Think of it. All the poor nobodies out there in TV land may barely be making ends meet, but at least they know they're a lot happier than the Hollywood elite. And what do you think came next?

The daytime talk shows, of course. Now anyone could go on TV with their most personal, intimate secrets. The more disgusting, the better.

And here's the big payoff: Are we any better adjusted with all this constant, and unwanted public catharsis? I know that Eli Lilly's stockholders are. After all, 21 million Prozac users can't be wrong.