17 September 2003
Affleck-Lopez break-up hits California tourism
Governor requests state be declared disaster zone
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- No other part of the world was
rocked as hard as California by the news that Ben
Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were calling it quits.
"It's a disaster!" said California Governor Gray Davis in
announcing that he will ask President Bush to declare 15 California
counties "federal disaster zones."
Such a designation would open the way for the state to receive federal funds to
offset the losses in tourism that are expected
following the cancellation of the wedding between the celebrity couple.
Citing the results of a poll conducted just this past week by the
California Department of Tourism, Governor Davis noted that 63 percent of out-of-staters who
plan to visit California are coming for only one reason: To stand on the sacred
ground of the Ben and J-Lo wedding ceremony. Now that reason has
evaporated.
"The dot-com bomb, the global recession, the recall, Arnold, and
now this," Davis lamented. "We were pinning California's economic
recovery hopes on this wedding. Now we
expect a complete collapse in the tourist industry here. If and when people
recover from this calamity, they are not going to want to visit a place
that will bring back all the sad memories."
Indeed, since the announced split, psychiatric hospitals across the country have
been flooded with requests for grief counseling. One psychologist in
Fayetteville, North Carolina, noted, "This is the worst outbreak of CSD
[Celebrity Split-up Disorder] since Loni tossed Bert out on his keister."
Meanwhile, the California State Disaster Planning Board is recalling
National Guard troops from Santa Barbara, and the state has scuttled
plans to add a thong motif to the tush of the golden bear on the state
flag.
But some observers wonder if the wedding really is off or if the
Governor is involved in some sort of ploy to protect the privacy of the
couple.
In a prepared statement from the Governor's office,
Davis left this question hanging: "With all the unknowns about California from earthquakes to
politics, the wedding was the one thing that people thought they could
count on. Now, apparently, they don't even have that."
"Apparently?"
Related Travel Fox scoops:
Related Err Travel columns:
© 2003 Applied Psychology
|
|
