Reading this post about Alton Brown from Good Eats triggered me to think on the topic. It looks like initially he just elected to not engage, then gave it another try with a different philosophy. Not easy to laugh about @altonbrownsucks!

If you reach a certain level of fame you’ll also hit the point where a given number of people just don’t like you, for reasons fair or unfair.  It means if you want to be famous (or luck into it) you have to grow a pretty tough skin and some defenses to survive. I don’t know how hard it is, but it doesn’t look like fun. Maybe the trade is worthwhile?

It’s the reason many good people don’t want to run for public office, they don’t want to be pummeled, and they don’t want to have to change/grow the defenses to survive because it will change who they are in the process. Not sure that is always true, but is often true.