April 25, 2007: Lessons Celebrities Teach Us Part 1: "Kitty, I Forgive You"

Celebrities teach us things; sometimes by setting an example, sometimes by showing us what not to do. For every Britney and Lindsay showing their private parts as they exit clubs, limos, and back entrances to clubs, there's a famous person who throws out a provocative sound byte that makes you think.

I know I have learned a lot from celebrities, probably things I could have just learned from myself, or from friends, but somehow, hearing it from a celebrity made it seem true. The fact that we pay attention to what celebrities have to say makes little sense sometimes. But then, there's the occasional gem.

Thus begins a new celebri-spiral feature: Things Celebrities Teach Us.

Lots of big, outspoken celebs have died recently; David Halberstam, Boris Yeltsin, Art Buchwald, and Anne Richards, to name a few. In that mix was Kitty Carlisle Hart, who played New York doyenne like no other up until her fabulous and final 96th year.

She was a legend on the game show To Tell The Truth, sometime-actress, sometime-singer, philanthropist, and widow of playwright Moss Hart. But according to Liz Smith, Kitty's best gift to her fans was the psychological advice she followed herself. Every morning she looked in her mirror and said, "Kitty, I forgive you!" before she started her day.

Something for Britney, Lindsay, Paris, and all of us to consider?