Celebrity versus anonymity: which do you prefer? A little of both, it seems, but it costs. Stars today - people who shine - want to be visible, at least they did until they are. and then they pay a fortune to be hidden and protected, with high walls and locked gates and bodyguards and of course sunglasses so they won't be recognized. Some people in today's firmament are famous not for any particular talent they have but just for being famous. They must really want it. Fame - that "last infirmity of noble mind," as Milton put it, that is the desire for it, is a weakness. Anonymity is better, especially if you're doing good, as opposed to doing well. You must do your alms in private. We admire modesty in all things, but modesty doesn't win prizes, does it? And what does modesty have to do with privacy? This is too much for me at the moment. It's three o'clock in the morning and I have just been warned that my battery is running low. I'll say.