A lot of people tend to basically treat celebrities the same way they treat fictional characters.

Some of the similarities are relatively surface-level; for example, celebrity couple names (Brangelina, Bennifer) follow the same pattern as shipping OTP nicknames (Harmony, Johnlock).

Other parallels are more substantial: the media focuses on celebrity weddings in much the same way as movie releases, season finales, and other cultural events, and other – increasingly personal – events receive similar treatment, such as giving birth or receiving treatment for alcoholism.

Ultimately this passes into the realm of the downright sinister. When celebrity nudes are leaked – by any sane judgment an unforgivable transgression on the part of the leaker – the public reaction seems to be basically the same as if the celebrity had intentionally released a nude photoshoot. Perhaps there is an extra frisson of the nominally illicit, but it is the same sense of mild naughtiness as when someone leaks the next episode of a popular TV show a few days early. The photos might as well exist by magic; there is nothing prior to them. That celebrities are people, that someone in the real world is having their privacy invaded, seems not to be considered at all.

Celebrities' personal lives are implicitly treated as a topic of public interest, in the same way as the weather or the government. That they might have a right to privacy is, for the most part, not even considered.

And it can't be considered. As soon as the question is actually asked – do celebrities have a right to privacy? – the answer is self-evidently yes. The issue cannot be debated; it can only be avoided and ignored.

Hence the importance of talking about it, so that people will realize explicitly what they already implicitly know.