That's a nice interview, and I agree that it's only human to be touched by a story you relate to...I don't think any of us would be less moved if that story was by someone we didn't know; it's just that a story like that probably wouldn't be in the paper in the first place if it weren't on a celebrity! That's just the way it is...
However, Shart, I agree 100% with you on how the papers try to tell us how we should all weep over Bono's dead dad or whatever. This paragraph seems more than a little melodramatic:
"U2 star Bono is still haunted by the death of his beloved father and has picked up the phone to call him several times, forgetting he died two years ago from cancer.
In a moving interview, the millionaire frontman admitted that he's subconsciously taken on Bob Hewson's mannerisms and has started to walk and even cough like his dad."
I watched some interview with the band promoting the new album, and when they got to the obligatory "this album is about my dad" bit, the guy even said he knows most people in the world are suffering much more---that it just opened his heart in a way he wanted to share, ie thru the music. It's just the media force-feeding us sob stories, and telling us how we should care so much about celebrities woes. (And there are probably a few on this board who care a little too much about some Irish dude they've never met, I'll agree.)
Still, I can get a little teary-eyed during Kite at Slane...not because I knew Bono's dad or think death at 75 is particularly tragic, but simply because it's an emotion or circumstance I can relate to in my own life, except this person is showing it in front of 80,000 people. If that makes sense.