Seriously, who’d want to be a Brad Pitt at this low-tide mark in civilisation?

Watching, reading and listening to all the news, comments, opinions, judgments and outright lies about the end of Brad and Angelina’s famous marriage this week, I kept having one recurring thought: these are real, live human beings people are talking about.

They’re not cardboard cut-outs or fictional film characters.

Many of we mere mortals know how tough some relationships can get and how sensitive we are to the harsh opinions of people who know nothing about what is going on within that dynamic.

Yet, the sewer of comments which flooded western society this week was proof that too many of us don’t give a damn.

So shallow we’d be out of our depth in a carpark puddle.

I don’t know why the Brad and Angelina split brought it into such sharp focus.

Maybe because they had been – I thought – living such magnificent and noble lives.

They were both very fine actors who made some fine films. They were people to look up to. Angelina’s off-screen life was full of commitment to people in appalling poverty. She was a respected person at the United Nations for her ability to give voice to those caught in avoidable tragedies.

Even their family life held inspiration, blended as it is between their biological and their adopted children and I don’t think I ever saw an occasion when the adopted kids were held up as some sort of token or trophy kids.

“Look how noble I am, adopting a baby from north Africa.”

It was just one woman and one man making a difference the best way they knew how.

And then, this week it came unglued.

The world should have felt just a little bit saddened that two people we had respected were in troubled times and not going all that well.

Instead of asking RUOK the world media released a septic tank of vile and sarcastic memes, flooded social media with Jennifer Aniston jokes, spread rumours, which everyone supposedly involved vehemently denied.

I am also delighted at the reported comments from Jennifer Aniston who apparently told the US TV in a "colourful" what people making up stuff could do with their private bodily parts. And guess what? The myth-busting website Snopes.com very quickly reported that even that was a fraudulent story. It's worse than a soap opera and has nothing to do with real people in real life.

In the middle of the cacophony of raucous commentary, here was one little moment when Angelina was quoted as asking the media to respect the privacy … of the kids.

It cannot be easy to live a normal life in the fishbowl of celebrity in our era of instant everything, Instant opinions, social media, fast food and even faster “facts”.

When any mouth-breathing idiot can hit the SEND button to anyone and anywhere. It must be a very hard gig.

I like what British actor Jude Law said about it: “I'm kind of ashamed to be a celebrity. I don't understand wanting to read about other people's dirty laundry. I think celebrity is the biggest red herring society has ever pulled on itself.”

Andy Warhol is credited with predicting that in the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of fame. Let’s hope he was wrong.

WAYNE GREGSON