Do we REALLY need celebs to raise our spirits?

As stars release ‘inspiring’ videos from isolation in their mansions...

THE world of celebrity very rarely covers itself in glory when it comes to commenting on serious global matters. Witness the many airbrained idiots vapidly expounding their latest pandemic platitudes.

We didn’t need coronavirus to prove to us that most ‘slebs’ should be restrained by their agents, but it has certainly hit the point home.

There they sit in their mansions sounding off about how we, the little people, should respond to this global crisis, without having the faintest notion how terrifying the situation might be for those without million-dollar incomes or 24/7 staff. My favourite has been Madonna, addressing us in Marie Antoinette mode from a petal-strewn bath.

As George Orwell taught us, some animals are more equal than others, and it tends to be those who can afford health insurance and personal chefs who fare better in times like this.

Actress Vanessa Hudgens became this year’s worst example of millennial gloop when she opined: ‘Even if everybody gets it, like, yeah, people are going to die, which is terrible but, like, inevitable?’ She concluded: ‘I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this right now?’ Prompting a collective: ‘D’ya think?’

Even the more well- meaning attempts at cheer have been utterly buttock- clenching. I defy you to endure Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot’s group rendition of Imagine without squirming. Behold: the likes of Natalie Portman, Jimmy Fallon, and Amy Adams warbling without the benefit of sound engineers.

These celebrity interventions aren’t about the public good. They’re about how nutjob the stars go without an audience. What will they be like in a couple of months’ time?

Plus there’s a serious side: by trivialising the situation with their no-brain views, some performers — such as Lost actress Evangeline Lilly — encourage fellow idiots to ignore government warnings. It’s experts we should be listening to, not people paid to impersonate experts in B-movies.

And the thing is, they actually could do some good, if they thought a bit harder. Kevin Bacon is the one celeb I’ll forgive, because his campaign is genuinely sensible and effective. He shared the names of six people he loves that he’s staying home for, then asked them each to share their own list of six more people. As the trend spreads on social media, it demonstrates how rapidly the virus could have passed between them if they hadn’t ‘stayed at home’.

That’s kind of the point right now. Everybody else, kindly step away from the record button. The world has enough problems without being patronised to death by a gaggle of overpaid hoofers.

Their efforts at cheer are utterly buttock clenching