"How can we know the dancer from the dance?" W. B. Yeats, "Among School Children"

Should a celebrity's private life have any bearing on our judgment of the work for which he/she is celebrated? Richard Wagner is one example of a public figure whose life has been discussed with nearly as much passion as his work. This phenomenon is not limited to artists, of course. Politicians--most notably Bill Clinton, in recent days--have encountered the same treatment.

Pick your favorite celebrity, or choose one of the following figures:

• Bill Clinton
• Mike Tyson
• Robert Downey, Jr.
• Joan Crawford

Search for a few websites dedicated to each of them, and consider the following questions:

1. To what extent do the sites deal with their private lives, as opposed to their lives on the public stage--doing what they're paid to do? Do you find the coverage of their private lives appropriate? Why or why not? Does it in any way affect their lives on the public stage?
2. What differences are there between the ways Internet sites cover these figures and the way they are represented in print, on TV, etc.? Discuss the differences, and the possible reasons for them.

Compare Deems Taylor's portrait of Wagner with the portrait created by the authors of any of these online sites:

Richard Wagner biography from the Harvard Dictionary of Musical Biography

Profile of Richard Wagner; Richard Wagner Archive compiled by Finnish Wagnerian scholar Hannu Salmi.

What differences do you find? What might explain them?