Why is Gossip so Addicting?

These stories are very different and very similiar. In one case, a highly-renown radio talk show host stated racial slanders toward young women. That other case: three upper-class white males were accused of raping a stripper.
If given these stories and told that only one could be front pages news, which would you chose? Imus is basically a celebrity, and what do most people love about celebrities? GOSSIP!! When standing in line at the grocery store, impatiently waiting for the check-out person (you'll find the slowest one in whatever line I am in!) to get through all of the groceries, and then of course there HAS to be a problem with the person's credit card, or they have 587,392,370 coupons, you pick up the tabloids and read about what is happening to Katie and Tom, or look at how anorexic Nicole Richie is. Celebrities fascinate us, which is why we stick them on the front page. More people will pick up the paper if someone famous is on the front page.
So why did the Duke students not get any attention? Who cares about three upper-class white males? We should care! The decision has been made that they did not commit the rape, but wouldn't you think that they would have gotten a little more news coverage than they did?
So basically... the world seems to becoming less and less interested in what may affect them. We want to know about other people, people we will most likely never come into contact with, but we care. Figures....