It's noteworthy because she makes 10+ million per movie as a sex symbol. And she is choosing health over remaining a sex symbol. On an individual level, you are correct that she is not different from the rest of us, except that millions of people do follow her life like a soap opera. Was there anything special about when Magic told us he had AIDS? His life is no more valuable than my uncle Henery's, except that he was visible to the world. Very few people cared about my uncle, but Magic was so important to so many people that it changed the entire understanding of the virus. Everyone read about Magic, learned about who is at risk, and many many millions of dollars were raised for research because of Magic. I certainly loved my uncle more, but simply being in the public eye allows education and progress within the public to increase dramatically. Jolie is not making a special or unique decision but because of her fame her decisions are very impactful on society.
Great example with Magic. Prior to that, HIV/AIDS was a gay man's issue, or at least, that was the perception. It was also seen as an immediate death sentence. I'm sure when he announced he was HIV positive in 1991, no one thought he'd be alive 22 years later.
Seems more likely than not, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "almost certainly". It's much less likely to be transmitted female to male, but it does happen, and he would have had access to thousands of women to screw which would up the odds. Then there is always needle sharing, which could have been recreational drugs or sharing steroid needles with someone.
While I agree that her celebrity status adds a "story" element to this (I still don't know who Susan Komen is), I think the "sex symbol" aspect is being slightly overplayed. First, she's almost 38, which isn't a death knell for "sex symbol" status but I see her doing more roles like Salt and less like Original Sin (or even Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Second, afaik she's getting them reconstructed, which shouldn't affect the aesthetics in future movies.
According to the NY Times, the odds of getting HIV from unprotected heterosexual intercourse with an infected partner is 1:500 if no condom is used, or 1:5Billion if a condom is used. I think the odds he got it from a woman are near zero. Shared needle? Seriously? I think the chances he shared a needle with anyone is zero. I can't imagine he was a drug user. Blood transfusion? Possible. I don't remember him needing surgery or another time he might have needed one. What's left?
You're serious right now? Do I use up all my cares caring about Collins coming out? Finding stories about famous people interesting doesn't take away from how much I care about my life or the people in it at all.
You don't care one tiny bit about anyone who you don't know personally, we get it. Other people do care about fellow humans.
It's we who decide what's important. We have the power to make her ordinary. I choose to exercise that power. I don't understand why people let themselves think celebrities are special.
I think to the individual, most people recognize that celebrity is just a status and that the person is nothing special, but societally the person becomes more important. It's mostly just a matter of how ubiquitous a person is. The more Joe Schmo sees celeb X, the more they end up listening and even putting value on what that person says. For the most part, I am not taken in by what Celeb X is saying, but occasionally I do find something intriguing about a Celeb. For me, I always am interested to hear what Penn Jillette says even though I have never met him. It bothers me that anyone cares about the kardashians or what they think, but that's our society. It does not bother me that there is a celebrity status, it does bother me who the American public elevates to that celeb status.
