I believe there should be a line drawn somewhere. I personally don't read all the magazines and celebrity TV shows. I could care less who's sleeping with who, or who wore it best. I just could care less. It doesn't have any effect on my life whatsoever.

While I think that the sadness of losing an icon should be relayed to the public, the details are unnecessary. Why does anyone need to know what Britney Murphy dies of beside her family? What does it matter? It is sobering to hear of anyone's death, and the actual reason while it may be news worthy for some, has no bearing for me. I don't idolize celebrities. I value their talent, and the entertainment they have offered the world. So losing them is sad, but I don't need to know why.

Allow them to rest in peace, god knows they weren't given that here.

In my opinion, the details of celebrity deaths should be open to public. There is no reason to hid this information. We should show other people how person start his life, what he gained and how he died. It might help to understand what is life and how to live.

I pretty much agree with ritzrblok's take on the question, but would go even further and say that--in my version of a more perfect world--we'd know a heck of a lot less about their private world when they're ALIVE as well.:-) I would disagree with the commonly held belief that tabloid journalism is harmless fun, and celebrities deserve what they get in terms of loss of privacy simply because they happen to be famous. You posed the idea that,"celebrities intentionally make their lives public" ... I don't think this is always true. Sometimes it's true, but not always. If it is a person's hearts desire to be a musician, actor, pro basketball player or whatever and they have the talent and good fortune to gain success, I don't think it's necessarily also true that they want to live their private lives in the public eye.

In general, this article by Rob Sheridan (art director for Nine Inch Nails) pretty much sums up how I feel about the current cultural obsession with details of celebrities' lives: http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/06/can-we-please-as-culture-just-move-on.html

I think the best way to look at the question of whether or not the death details should be publicized is to think, "how would I feel if this person was a friend or family member?" And then to remember that there ARE family members and friends of the celebrity, they're as human as we are and they're feeling the same things we would feel in a situation of losing someone they love.Can you imagine how you'd feel if an immediate family member died and "news sources" started demanding to see photos of the corpse and autopsy details by virtue of some twisted idea of the public's "right to know"?

Brittany and Michael, RIP :-)