Remember when The Enquirer and Star were the only tabloids fighting for room at the grocery store check out? Who can forget the scandalous stories with ridiculous headlines about the world’s fattest newborn (weighing in at 18 pounds) or the”real-life” Harry & the Henderson’s monster living with a family in South Dakota.

People bought these magazines. Likely the same people who called and fully believed in the Psychic Friends Network, but people nonetheless.

There were, of course, people like me who mocked them and their ridiculous made-for-Springer stories with a snooty, “pass the Economist”-tone.

But then a funny thing happened. Creepy little men started following our favorite celebrities around with cameras. At first it was the occasional feature on red carpet movie premieres and charity events. But eventually there were enough photos of Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland (pre & post engagement) and Madonna (pre & post SEX book) to warrant some seedy captions. It didn’t take long for those captions to morph into “stories” reported by anonymous “sources”.

Slowly but surely, all stories of local shopkeepers saved from a bullet by grandma’s aptly placed broach became filler (back by the horoscopes and ads for Xenedrin) to make room for photos of Donald & Ivanka’s divorce and exposes on why the cast of 90210 hated Shannen Doherty.

It didn’t take long for shiny, glossy pubs, focusing only on our coveted celebs, to take shape. US, In Touch, In Style, etc. left those flimsy periodical style rags in the dust.

Those of us who were previously too highbrow for the fattest man on the planet exclusives now wait with baited breath for tales of the latest celeb checking into Promises (Drew Barrymore was a particular fave).

So thanks paparazzi, for not only changing the face of grocery store lines everywhere, but also forcing women who give birth to octuplets off the cover to make room for real celebs- errrr - wait a minute…Are we coming full circle here?

Anyway, check out a typical “shoot” below. Is Lindsey walking out of a store really more interesting then potential aliens landing in Roswell? I’m not so sure anymore.

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