Skid Row: An Interesting Attraction For Celebrities

L.A. Times columnist, Patt Morrison, scribes an interesting column for Thanksgiving today. Here's the LA Times column. Here is the beginning of it:
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THE PERILS of skid row in Los Angeles can be stated in too-muches and too-fews: too much violence, too much illness of mind and body, too much crime and dirt and hunger and noise. And too few decent beds and good meals; too few safe, clean refuges, even too few private places to go to the toilet.

And then there's one day in particular, when a certain kind of too-muchness hits the red-alert level. That day is today, Thanksgiving Day. The danger is an excess of celebrities and the news media that swarm in their wake.

Skid row's missions and shelters don't see a news crew for months on end. And then comes Thanksgiving, when their poor patrons can get their retinas burned out from camera-light candlepower as paparazzi trail the celebrity swarm "giving back" and dispensing hot food to the down and out.

A few years ago, a slightly panicky staffer at one mission called over the walkie-talkie: "I think we've got too many celebrities in the cooking area." In Hollywood? Is there any such thing?

If you watch the news accounts carefully, you'll see the beneficiaries of all this charity appear none too keen on being made into human props.