What if Jett Travolta died differently?

[NicoleWasHere]

What if Jett Travolta died differently?

If Jett Travolta died in a car accident, gossip vultures would be speculating on DUI and driving violations. And when police reports deemed him blameless, that would be called a conspiracy.

If he died in a high school shooting spree, the vultures would surmise that he did something to bring it on himself. Enough mud-digging and they might find a student who Jett didn't get along with, leading to the conclusion that he was the bully those shooters were aiming for.
If Jett died of old age, gossip mongers would hypothesize that concealed vices in his youth eventually caught up with him. Or that some trusted caretaker had plotted his death. There's no room for fate, accidents or ordinary mortality among celebrities and their offspring.

Why? Because that's the nature of the rumor beasts we've created. It's considered "entertainment" to feed upon ourselves. In that shameful thinking, nothing happens to anyone with a famous name - or surname in this case, since Jett never did anything to make himself a public figure - without some juicy explanation of why.

People make good money laying out the sordid possibilities.
In the case of Jett Travolta, whatever this obviously challenged boy didn't do to make his life suspect is attributed to his parents, especially their belief in Scientology. I'm as dubious of that religion as anyone but not to the extent that I believe John Travolta and Kelly Preston would allow their son to die for it. They aren't Casey Anthony "losing" a child after it interfered with her partying. Or Susan Smith rolling a car into a lake with her two kids inside.
But that's the sordid picture being drawn by gossip columnists and lemmings believing they're getting solid news. Bottom feeding Web sites like Gawker.com (I won't link to it; you're welcome to try) even dredged up old, unsubstantiated rumors of John Travolta being gay because Jett was discovered in seizure by caretaker Jeff Kathrein that paparazzi once caught sharing a close-mouthed peck on the lips with the actor.

A shameless public thirsty for celebrity scandal connects the misleading dots: gay Scientologists let a child die because, like Anthony's case, he was in the way. Narrow minds will buy into that.
I'm actually proud of the way the Times has handled Jett Travolta's death in print and online. That requires a hard swallow before typing, as some readers know. I've made my feelings known about gossip in our pages before, as in the case of Paul Newman's deathwatch.
The Times, as far as I can tell, has reported the story of a boy's death and his family's grief - made more topical by the Travoltas' fame and Florida connections including Kathrein living in Pinellas County. No speculation or recriminations, even in gossip columns, at least until/unless the rightfully confidential autopsy results become public record and there's smoke.

On the other hand, we're allowing many of our readers to take care of casting stones. As I type this, there are 173 messages posted on the Let's Talk page devoted to the possible connection between Scientology and Jett Travolta's death. They're about equally split between anti-Scientologist accusers with a new flint on which to grind axes, and people wishing they would give it a rest to respect the Travoltas' grief. I lean toward the latter group. There's a fight there but this isn't the time or context.

What reassures me about human nature is the memorial guestbook created by the Times for readers to leave condolences to the Travolta family - 295 pages of heartfelt postings, many referring to Christian beliefs despite the Travoltas' faith in Scientology ignoring God's existence. There aren't any I-told-you-so attitudes or blame casting, just a unanimous declaration of sympathy in the moment.
That's all this story calls for. And if information surfaces leading somewhere else, so be it. But let's skip the celeb-stalking and gossipy conjecture that can twist a family's tragedy into more evidence of our cultural decline. These aren't the Hogans, after all.

(Photo: AP)

What if Jett Travolta died differently?

[sluce]

I caught part of the view on Monday and had to laugh because they went off on how the gossip hounds are causing more grief for the Travoltas and then people need to get control of their need to know details of celebrities lives and pass judgment on them. Then they said after this commercial break we will talk with our guest Perz Hilton. Hello!!!!

[NicoleWasHere]

^

[Trixie]

Who wrote this dreck? Lisa Marie Presley?

Yeah, they're not the *shudder* Hogans!

[Sweetie]

He'd still be dead.....

[Sarzy]

I mean, I do agree with parts of that article. Any death is viewed as suspicious if the person is even slightly involved with Scientology, when sometimes an accident is just an accident. But Scientology is evil so it's no-one people get suspicious.

[holly]

My biggest problem with this kid's death is that no one bothered to check on him for over 12 hours. How many times in the past was he basically ignored for many hours at a time? That's what bothers me the most.

[Sasha]

He died in a home environment, presumably under the care of his parents and two "24/7" nannies. It is what it is, and even if these two flakes had been Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow people would still be wondering what exactly the hell happened.

[Butterfly]

Who wrote this dreck? Lisa Marie Presley?

Most likely a cosbot wrote this garbage.

[CherryDarling]

Yeah, this reeks of $cieno-language.

I think people would speculate period, mainly because of his age and his parent's celebrity, affiliation with $cientology, etc. All in all though, it's so sad. Poor Jett.

[Grimmlok]

The author is Steve Persall.. twitchy, have at him

[AliceInWonderland]

I'd still blame scientology ya stupid famewhore author!

[Bellatheball]

This is nothing more than damage control.



I'm not Twitchy but it looks like this guy write for the Tampa Bay newspaper and lives in Clearwater.

ETA: The biggest thing I found was there was a film that was critical of the Co$ and he wrote an article saying it could have been done better. I only skimmed so there might have been something more interesting that I overlooked.

[PrettyGirl]

I think it's strange that human nature is to think that death comes in some sort of organized manner. There is no order. Newborns die, toddlers die, chidlren die, teenagers die, adults die and elderly people die. Death comes to everyone at any given time. In my head, when your number comes up, it's just your time.

The fact that Jett Travolta died young means nothing. I honestly think it was his fate. I don't think his death is suspicious. Some people live longer than others. Some die young, others die old. I just hope that John and Kelly find strength to overcome this tragedy and can one day be happy that their son made them into better, happier and understanding people. The tabloids need to stop sensationalizing this story and be respectful to this family.

[Grimmlok]

Yeah, and if you ignore all the crazy scientology bullshit, it almost seems plausible

But out here in the really real world, it's suspicious. You can stop shilling for the Scienobots at any time, cuz I'm not convinced anybody is buying it