In general, gossip, which is different from harassment and public shaming, is a deeply human activity. In psychological studies, it has been shown to be good for promoting bonds between friends. When we gossip, what we’re doing is grappling with the rules of human behaviorthat’s why juicy or scandalous gossip is always more fun. Yes, it’s fun to talk about your friend’s new girlfriend, but it’s way more fun and way more interesting to discuss whether she was justified in cheating on her then-boyfriend with her new girlfriend. As for celebrity gossip specifically, it's even more so a way for us to discuss ideas about human behavior, I think. Jennifer Aniston (and Jenny Slate, for that matter) is an actress who has achieved celebrity, which doesn't mean she's not a person, but we don’t know her as a person. We only know her as an "idea" as Buzzfeed’s Anne Helen Peterson, who has PhD in celebrity gossip, put it.