Why don't we look up to scientists and intellectuals like we do music and movie stars?

I have become annoyed with my society. People pay more attention to movie stars and the daily lives of these people than they do scientists and true revolutionaries. Galileo, DaVinci, Carl Sagan, Jacob Bronowski, and Richard Dawkins. They have done so much more for humanity than Michael Jackson or any other star has ever done. Sometimes I can barely stand to go to school knowing that I will have to listen to the inane conversations of other students about what some star has recently done. The news will even pay more attention to Paris Hilton doing drugs than any new scientific breakthrough. I once saw a 30 second blurb on my local news station about what could possibly be a cure for cancer. They followed it by talking for five minutes about Snooki (whoever that is) getting arrested.