Why do people look for moral exemplars or moral clarity in artists? Entertainers? Novelists?

Do you really expect to find it there and if so, why? Why is this even important to you?

Artists are by nature transgressive. They have skeletons in their closets. If I ever became a famous writer, they could dig up whole graveyards about me. Without even trying.

Why this need to worship prostrate at the feet of artists and entertainers, and the utter disappointment when they fail to live up to your ideals? Hint: they never, ever will. Any artist worth a damn is transgressive by nature. That doesn’t just stop when they sign off for the evening or put the paintbrush or movie camera down.

No, this isn’t excusing their behavior or their actions. Artists don’t get a pass because of their other talents. But I’m telling you, and it will always be thus, that anyone who is truly creative won’t ever fit in the neat boundaries and delineations you wish to make for them. It just won’t happen.

Is the work good or not? is how I judge a creator. Beyond that, an artist being morally suspect is about what I’d expect to see, else they’d never produce anything worth watching or reading.