Did you know that Madonna and Guy Ritchie are getting divorced? It would be hard to miss this startling revelation screaming out at us in every tabloid, or semi-tabloid publication in the world. This story is being amply displayed in grocery stores, promising exciting revelations on just how screwed up their relationship was.

The original statement announcing their divorce was unintentionally amusing. Madonna’s spokespeople asked the media to respect her privacy. Yeah, right. It’s like throwing a juicy piece of meat into a kennel of dogs and asking them to ignore it. Celebrities of Madonna’s caliber don’t get to shut out the media when they’re going through a rough patch.

The draw to these stories, I think, is first and foremost, the natural enjoyment we have for watching a car wreck. We like to witness the drama and the excitement. We’re fascinated when a celebrity’s life takes a downturn.

We also love seeing the answer to the mystery. We’ve speculated for years on just how anyone could handle being married to Madonna. We wonder how anything healthy could occur in the home of a pop star, especially someone as self-obsessed as Madge.

We’re jealous of celebrities. It’s understandable. They’re rich. They’re successful. They seem to have many of things that most of us don’t have. Who doesn’t want to live such a life?

But we also hope that they’ll fail. This may be due in part to jealousy, but I think a lot of it is a desire to see reality. We want their lives to crumble so that our lives will be justified.

All of that larger-than-life glamour is revealed as what we’ve always suspected–her life is unrealistic. Madonna likes to pretend that it’s possible to be a super successful sex symbol, with an exotic artist’s life, full of wealth and privilege. But we know the truth. Even her so-called spiritual side is thrown in question when we see all of the spiteful behavior that they’re exhibiting.

But then we see it all come crashing down, and we realize that all the glitz and glamour doesn’t mean anything. And for some reason, it’s fun to watch this reality check.