Jim Govatos: The fallacy of private celebrities

I am a Detroit Tigers fan and I like Justin Verlander. I especially liked him when he was throwing all those strikes a couple of years ago.

But I must say his recent complaint about the hacking of his iCloud account revealing nude pictures of him and his main squeeze, Kate Upton, was a bit silly. Now this is not what you think – a rant against loose morality by a pastor – that is for another day. What I'm most concerned about here is the sheer stupidity in thinking he could have a private life.

He is a celebrity and he hangs out with an even greater celebrity, someone who has appeared more often in Sports Illustrated than he has. What made him think that he could escape the online paparazzi any more than Prince William and Kate Middleton could escape the camera lenses of tabloid photographers?

Kate Upton has made a fortune showing nearly everything. What made Verlander think that someone out there in cyberspace would not be trolling to find glimpses of everything? There are plenty of people out there without a life who want others to share in their misery by destroying their lives, or at least their privacy.

I'm not saying Verlander has no right to be upset by the invasion of his and Kate's privacy – anyone would be. But why not join in the fight against the invasion by refusing to document his private life himself? Who were they going to show the pictures to, anyway? Their children should they one day get married?

I think what is really at stake here in the celebrity photo scandal is our society's addiction to exhibitionism, which when coupled with a growing rise in voyeurism, makes for an explosive mixture. Why this fascination with recording everything about everything? Are we so narcissistic that even the most private moments of life must be recorded for posterity? It reminds me of people pasting things all over Facebook and then getting upset when it costs them a job or scholarship.

Now, technically speaking, Verlander and Upton, as well as all the other celebrities, were recording something in private, which they intended to remain private, but the same exhibitionism was at play. And because they are public people, much of their private lives will be made public, whether they intend it to or not. That is the price you might have to pay for earning $20 million and $82 million per year respectively.

Even those of us who earn considerably less might want to take a cue. There are some parts of our private lives that are worth protecting ferociously. It's called setting boundaries. So, next time you're thinking about taking that selfie or sharing TMI (too much information), think again. It just may end up somewhere you never intended.

And as for Verlander? Maybe if he played a little less house with Kate and a little more ball with Miggy (Cabrera), the Tigers might finally get that shot at the World Series.