Touch our lives more than before they were the staple diet of tv and press. We are subjected to their out takes in life too now. The inopportune comment, the hat that blows away, the gaffe etc...It makes them appear 'human', as opposed to some reported upon figure who we never see walk and talk.

If people feel they know someone, and like what they feel they know, they will mourn their death. Not in a handwringing and wailing kind of way maybe, but in a 'Oh shit, another one gone,' way?

The more people worldwide who have been exposed to these 'celebs', means the more people there will be to comment on their passing. And thousands/millions of comments become mass hysteria? No, it is just a numbers game.