I have heard that celebrity scandals are purposely created to distract masses from real issues

True.. press n media have their illuminatis to cook up such hot news so as to make sensational headlines so as to keep their TRP rating high.. and earn more for advertisment space.

The romans used gladiators. We use the kardashains

The world is not that complicated.

It's not necessary to "create" the scandals. They just happen and people cheerfully follow. The real conspiracy is trying to make people believe that shit happens because of some obscure group of people is trying to control the world. That distracts people from the reality that it's their own stupidity and gullibility what creates all problems in the first place. It's easy to blame conspiracies for the worlds problems: it makes people feel it's all "some one else's fault" and that there's "nothing they can do about it", so they just go back to watching celebrities on TV and playing games...

Yeah, but they obviously suck at it... everyone still knows a hurricane is coming! 🙄

All sorts of things are created to distract us and spread misinformation.

I wouldn't doubt it.

Bella Thorne is notorious in trying to stay significant

All kinds of turmoil including political are designed to distract.

Not to distract the masses so much as drive publicity.