Is tragedy the price of genius?

Tonight I watched La Vie en Rose. The video biography of France's most most beloved female singer. I was astounded at the similarities between Edith Piaf's life and that of Judy Garland. So much talent emerging from so much pain. Both never finding true love. Both dying so young.

Why is it that genius so often takes demands so much? Why does it seem that so many of our greatest artists emerge from painful pasts and have such a hard time overcoming their pasts and so end up destroying themselves?

Fame and Fortune always so sought after, and yet they rarely seem to bring happiness in any real measure to those who achieve them. Such sad irony;don't you agree?

By the way, the girl who starred in La Vie en rose, Marion Cotillard deserves the best actress Oscar. She was phenomenal as the disintegrating "sparrow". I thought she was great in A Good Year, but this performance was extraordinary!!!