Once on the plains of Shinar, a migrating people settled, and soon thereafter conceived a big idea: "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth"a (Genesis 11:4).

Tinseltown Studios is definitely an idea whose time has come. Located in Anaheim, Calif., not far from Hollywood, this new theme park with a difference offers ordinary folks a crack at celebrityhood for a $45 base price.

The first round of Bingo was underway when an unrestful noise began to claw its way into the proceedings. The residents of the nursing home where I volunteer shifted uneasily in their chairs as it crept closer, a thin screech that frayed the nerves. Soon the caller could scarcely be heard over the noises coming from an ancient woman in a wheelchair, who could no longer walk or talk. Screech she could, and did, effectively breaking up the game until one of the attendants wheeled her out of the dining room and down the hall toward sedation.

"He's only human!" I hear it everywhere: from the man on the street, the irate talk-show caller, the little old librarian, the check-out clerk. As a defense it's not exactly ringing; as a judgment it doesn't stimulate deep thought or spirited debate. But who dares to refute it? "Has your life been a model of good behavior? Would you want the world to know all your dirty little secrets?"