I N PRESUMED INTIMACY, SOCIOLOGIST CHRIS ROJEK WRITES THAT media audiences may have “para-social” relationships with two media apparitions: statistical people and celebrities. By “parasocial” he means emotional connections to remote persons far beyond our kith and kin (1–10). A big disaster intensifies such connections with statistical victims and with celebrities as audiences look for meaning, direction, and emotional outlet. As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infects every population, statistical people—once media’s remote victims of disaster—are now us, comprising nearly eight billion and summarized in escalating numbers of the infected, the surviving, and the dead. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, celebrities on social media have status as arbiters of this crisis, but an intensified domesticity has transformed their roles. Glimpses into celebrities’ private lives, including their habitations, are essential to feelings of intimacy and kinship with them. The crafting of these seemingly private realms—including access to them—is part and parcel of celebrity marketing. In a disaster where massive numbers of people, worldwide, are forced to stay indoors, this display of domesticity is riveting. As people meet online, newly revealing their own domestic spaces for work and play, celebrities’ domestic spaces are screen openings among many such openings. As celebrities are seen going about their daily lives, they perform among many ordinary performances and in relation to them. The contrast of their strange lives to the ordinary could never be more pronounced. One of the more interesting transformations is the spectacle of action heroes—who would normally be racing to save the day—placidly reveling in domesticity. These include Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar in his hot tub and feeding carrots to his donkey and miniature horse at his kitchen table; Sam Neill petting a duck and bird-calling; Patrick Stewart in an armchair reading Shakespeare’s

中文翻译：

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名人、流行病和家庭生活

在假定的亲密关系中，社会学家克里斯·罗杰克写道，媒体受众可能与两种媒体幻象存在“准社会”关系：统计人物和名人。他所说的“准社会”是指与远在我们的亲戚和亲戚之外的远方人的情感联系（1-10）。当观众寻找意义、方向和情感出口时，一场大灾难加强了与统计受害者和名人的这种联系。随着新型冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 感染每个人口，统计人员——曾经是媒体的远程灾难受害者——现在是我们，包括近 80 亿人，并总结为感染者、幸存者和死亡人数不断增加。随着 COVID-19 大流行的展开，社交媒体上的名人被视为这场危机的仲裁者，但日益强烈的家庭生活已经改变了他们的角色。瞥见名人的私人生活，包括他们的住所，对于与他们建立亲密关系和亲属关系至关重要。打造这些看似私密的领域——包括访问它们——是名人营销的重要组成部分。在一场灾难中，全世界有大量的人被迫呆在室内，这种家庭生活的表现令人着迷。随着人们在网上见面，新的展示自己的工作和娱乐的家庭空间，名人的家庭空间是众多此类开口中的屏幕开口。当人们看到名人过着他们的日常生活时，他们在许多普通的表演中表演并与他们有关。他们奇怪的生活与普通人的对比再明显不过了。更有趣的转变之一是动作英雄的奇观——他们通常会竞相拯救世界——平静地陶醉于家庭生活。其中包括阿诺德施瓦辛格在他的热水浴缸里抽雪茄，在厨房的桌子上给驴和小马喂胡萝卜；山姆尼尔抚摸鸭子和鸟叫；帕特里克·斯图尔特坐在扶手椅上阅读莎士比亚的作品