Consider this my Dear John letter

Dear Sirs/Madams,

This letter will make no great impact on you but it's a big deal for me.

For years now, I've been a loyal consumer of celebrity gossip. I have the subscription to these types of magazines, I routinely pick up your title at the supermarket and airports, I peruse the popular gossip sites when online, I watch E! news. I gasp and share tidbits with friends about what Britney's done now and that Angelina's adopted another baby. Until this moment, I've eaten it up.

The last few months have proven more and more difficult for me to continue this way. I guess in truth it started back with the consistent coverage of Paris Hilton's arrest. Something about the way the cameras gathered around her cop car, I suppose. I have no love of Paris, her fame baffles and annoys me, but something did not sit right with me about that scene. Or any of the thousands that followed. And then Amy Winehouse. And Britney Spears. Pictures of these people in such acute pain and discomfort. I was watching E! the night of Britney's hospitalization and the feeling in my gut just worsened- watching the media attack that ambulance felt viscerally like a group of vicious animals descend on an injured prey. And now Heath Ledger.

I have the People.com headlines on my Google homepage. That's how much I have fed off this stuff. First, seeing the media display outside his apartment as they wheeled his body out on a stretcher and now the incessant updates, the speculation of his relationships, the paparazzi siege on the mother of his child, the comments by people who undoubtedly had little to do with his real, personal and deeply private life. What's happening now would undoubtedly be Heath Ledger's worst nightmare. It overshadows the legacy he's attempted to leave in his all-too-short life. I can no longer sit by and let his feeling of repulsion grow. Especially when I realized I was the reason for the problem. After all, why would you dish it out at all if I wasn't willing to pay to take it?

So no more People. No more US Weekly. No more E! Or TMZ. Or Perez. This is it, I'm done. It's a small thing and it will make no difference in the way things are until enough people make the same decision and the magazines, television shows, and gossip blogs start seeing it where it really hurts- in the wallet. And when will they- we- hit our limit? When a celebrity's child is hurt or killed? When it drives Britney Spears to suicide? Would that be enough? I don't think it would. Do you?

I've heard all the arguments. This is what the people want. These people have everything, this is the price they pay. It's fun and harmless. It's just a magazine, it's business. Hell, I've made most of those arguments myself. But the time for excuses and laziness is over. I'm sick of feeling sick to my stomach. I don't want to be part of the problem anymore, I don't want to be the reason anymore. Instead, I've decided to get a life. My conscience, my heart and my decency depend on it.

Thank you,
Judi

PS I tried to send this to E!, TMZ, and US Weekly but they don't give out their email addresses. Feel free to forward to whomever you wish. This belongs to them as much as it belongs to you.