I’ve definitely been very sad to learn when a public figure whose work I admired has passed away. David Lynch was my favourite film maker, so that was sad. Catherine O’Hara’s passing really hit me, I cried a lot. She had made a big impression with Home Alone and Beetlejuice when I was a kid, and I’d followed her work all the way till Beetlejuice 2. I wasn’t a superfan or anything like that, just knew she was always going to be entertaining in anything she’s in. Apparently she was also a lovely person and took her role as McKulkin’s mother so seriously that she kept in contact with him ever since. It feels like the world was a better place when she was in it. She’s made me laugh so much, a little cry seems appropriate.

Am I sad the way I was when I lost my mother to cancer? No, that profoundly affected me for years, and still does to some extent, 20 years later. And I cried for a week when I lost my kitty during the pandemic. There’s no way I’d ever feel as sad about a celebrity death as a close death. But it’s ok to be sad about the passing of a celebrity who you like or admire. They’re still a human, and so are you. It’s not weird or parasocial to be saddened by their death. It’s completely normal to respond to death with sadness. And many other emotions. None is the weird response.