[Tito]

Well, in the case of celebrities' deaths, I wouldn't talk about grief at all. Giving our condolences in public is a kind of habit, and at the end I feel like it becomes a showing of courtesy rather than a true showing of feelings.

My personal opinion is that if you aren't sincere it is better to shut up. I don't like being politically correct, so I don't think anybody should feel obliged to say a few words in the memory of someone he knew from the media, even recognized to be an important person, but didn't pay a role on his life.

So, grief? It isn't a matter of grief in most cases. A tribute, I would understand and even join. But grief? There are very few people that, in my opinion, could feel a real grief about the death of a famous person (Reamus, for example, could be one of those in the case of Pavarotti).

Condolences are just an hypocrisy.

Another thing is that we are mainly refering to people that were famous for a strong reason. Colin McRae won several world rally championships, and Luciano Pavarotti was one of the best voices in the world. I guess we could call that "fullfilled lives", and that is another reason against general grief. Why should we cry for the death of a person who probably achieved his dreams? He was probably happy enough about that when his time came.

Hope some of this makes some sense...