Throughout the day while online I was ashamed at the conduct of some people. When the report first came out about Liam Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson suffering a head injury due to a skiing accident my initial thoughts were like many others - sad to hear and here's hoping she gets better. That sort of courtesy is normal, but what I read yesterday was far from normal - it was disturbing!

The reports were coming from everywhere about Natasha's condition: "She's brain dead", "She's going to be taken off life support", "No, wait. She's being flown to New York and then taken off life support", "Liam was spotted kneeling over his wife in the ambulance", "Vanessa Redgrave (Natasha's mother) was seen going into a hospital". It was so ridiculous I was waiting to read that there were twitter updates from the helicopter pilot flying her to New York.

The disturbing part of all this is that respectable news sites were not helping the situation, mainly the Huffington Post who were doing hourly updates and even started relaying news that a gossip site was publishing.

Why are people so hungry for this sort of news? Does the injury of someone you don't know give meaning to your life? Is this filling a void? Is it easier to express feelings for strangers that you can't express to people in your own life?

I understand the attachment aspect people have for those they admire but what I saw yesterday went way beyond attachment.