The magazine industry or at least a section of it, is fuelled by the cult of celebrity. There are numerous publications running on the format of celebrity pics supported by inane commentry about said celebs or some variation of the theme, maybe indepth (so called) articles or photo stories or whatever.
There is huge product turned out, which is either positive or negative in outlook about a particular celeb, depending on if the mood is for bashing or loving celeb X at this particular moment.
This is cool as it keeps loads and loads of people employed and products sold - and hek, products are going to be sold anyway, so why not give a few notables some cash for saying how good they are, I'm sure it doesn't affect the price... trainers are going to be the same price wether sports personalities promote a particular brand or not. ditto coffee, designer clothes and so on, they would just be pushed in some other way without the celebs.
I pretty much like celebs, or should I say the concept of them - because embarassingly I rarely recognise someone famous when they come up to me, and funnily enough working where I do, I get to see a few every now and then, can't list them I'm afraid - not through some sense of decency more because I'm never sure who I've just met!!