And Some of Them Even Suck at Their Craft, Too!

Behold, the most serious challenge to the Royal Society in that august body's 350-year history - the medical musings of Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney. These women are not just singers, or actresses, or fashion designers. They are distinguished professors at the University of Celebrity, and are coating your understanding of science like a totally amazing organic body oil.

On top of this, they are best friends, so we can say their pronouncements are peer-reviewed in the best sense of that term. Can you imagine their gatherings? It must be as if Isaac Newton were taking antioxidant tea with Robert Koch and Marie Curie.

I have oftentimes screamed at my television set at pseudo-scientist celebrities hawking "the Truth" about What They Know. Sure, we can laugh at Tom Cruise and his inane opinions on psychiatry ("You don't know the history of psychiatry, I do."), but consider how influential people like Oprah is - although I think she may be selective because she recently had the famous Dr. Oz on her show telling her that embryonic stem cell treatments are dangerous, but we don't hear her shouting that from the rooftops. Why do we even debate about global warming - excuse me, that's climate change - when Leonardo Di Caprio has told us that it is true.