“You guys are going to be talking about us either way,” Bristol Palin said at a panel for Dancing With the Stars: All Stars at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday, explaining why she and her family have embraced reality television even though it brings additional scrutiny to her family. It was the second Palin-studded panel of the tour. Bristol’s father Todd is a participant in NBC’s military-themed reality show Stars Earn Stripes, and while he barely uttered a word during the panel introducing the show on Tuesday, his wife, gone strikingly Hollywood, was the most sought-after star at NBC’s poolside party. But it was Bristol’s appearance that illustrated the contradictions of the Palin’s hunger for the spotlight and their disinterest in dealing with, or embracing with relish, the consequences of continuing to put themselves in the public eye.

“Our family’s mantra is to live life vibrantly,” Sarah Palin told Vulture’s Joe Adalian in a brief interview he was able to snag before hotel security started blocking reporters from approaching the family. “And participating in a show like this, especially for Todd, is exactly that. It is living life vibrantly.” Her daughter was less able to put a politician’s gloss on an essentially mindless pursuit. “I just think that God provides opportunities like this and you can go out and do ‘em,” she said, suggesting that if she was going to be the subject of media reports, she might as well embrace the opportunities that come with living in the public eye.

But Bristol got less and less comfortable as she was asked whether her family, which has frequently been vocally upset about their press coverage, has contributed to its own problems by embracing a profession that often puts its subjects in revealing and embarrassing situations. Recently, Bristol’s Lifetime Show, Life’s a Tripp, featured a sequence in which many viewers believed Bristol’s young son Tripp used the epithet “faggot” to deride his aunt—Palin has said that he used profanity, but not an anti-gay slur. When she and fellow contestant Pamela Anderson were asked about their attitudes towards gay people, Palin got visibly upset. “I like gays. I’m not homphobic and I’m so sick of people saying that just becuase I’m for traditional marriage,” she said. That stand “doesn’t mean I’m afraid of anyone else…whatever. I’m going to dance, I’m going to go have fun.”
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I was packing during Kanye West’s latest Twitter Explosion of Crazy and traveling during the reaction to it, so forgive me this late pass. But while I think his latest plans to adapt a Jetsons movie and launch a think tank-cum-Entertainment-720-like organization (credit to BuzzFeed for realizing the parallels) are equal parts nutty and kind of fascinating, they also illustrate something that’s bizarre about our entertainment culture. Somehow, we’ve arrived at a place where success means not just killing it in one field, but EGOT-plus-a-lot-of-other-letters-ing. It’s one thing to launch a fragrance line because you can make bank on it while also singing or acting. It’s totally understandable, if you’re a rapper, or a singer, to try something new within the broader confines of your profession: I miss Cee Lo Green as a rapper, but I’m glad for him (and us) that he’s found the warble that lets him turn out effortless imitations of ’50s and ’60s pop. It’s another to insist that you’re capable of rapping, designing clothes, and pulling together an entertainment think tank.

Part of the reason this is nuts is because it’s not really possible for a significant number of people to be world-class level talents in multiple areas. Justin Timberlake may have his William Rast clothing line, but he doesn’t seem to spend the bulk of his time on it and also appears to be wise enough not to let its critical reception get to him. Being a serious musician and an increasingly serious actor is enough. The Kardashians, I think, are more on the commercial end of the scale, but there is something odd about pretending that you actually have your fingers in so many pies when it’s an impossibility.

But more importantly, it speaks to a huge, weird neediness. Kanye West is a generationally beloved hip-hop artist who turned himself from a producer into a credible MC by force of will, shifted fashion in the genre to a hipster-inflected, confessional style, and has pushed forward the integration of hip-hop with pop and indie rock. His legacy is secure. So why all the other stuff, when he’s exposing himself to stunning failures like his first fashion collection. Even if he’s arrogant to the point of delusion, it still speaks to a need to be validated that’s essentially unfulfillable.