divine angst

The runaway bride story has dominated what has otherwise been a slow news week. That’s unfortunate, I think, because there are other things the media could be focusing on—continued violence in Iraq, the interesting things going on with the Fed and the economy, yadda yadda yadda. Instead, they’ve sunk to a new low: itemizing the runaway bride’s registry, and using it to demonize her.

Look, there are many things one could hold against this poor woman—her apparent self-absorption in thinking no one would look for her, her lying to the police about being abducted when she finally called in—but her registry is really not that extravagant.

Think about it this way—600 people were expected at this wedding. With that many guests, you run out of $15 OXO kitchen gadgets pretty quickly. A $250 KitchenAid stand mixer is standard registry fare. A $55 place setting is pretty inexpensive, as these things go.

I think CNN is trying to make a story where there isn’t one. Yes, the gifts will have to be sent back. If the wedding happens in the future, maybe they’ll get some of these things again, maybe they won’t—hey, that’s what happens when weddings are called off or postponed (two of my cousins had to send gifts back for cancelled weddings). CNN could have reported on just that aspect—the emotional and logistical aspect. Instead, they’re using the reigstry list to insinuate that the runaway bride was a materialistic bitch, and that’s unfair. She may, in fact, be a materialistic bitch, but this registry list certainly doesn’t prove it. (For instance, I don’t see a $310 place setting, as I have on other registries.)

Leave the woman alone, move on to more newsworthy stories, and stop creating controversy where there isn’t any.