I don't think talking about celebrities and politicians between friends leads to anything fruitful. Everything you think you know about public figures has passed through more than second hand.
My experience is that I can only make a point if I relate the questions to the highly personal. For example, when a friend says that her problems all stem from her childhood and that her parents or bad men are to blame, I can ask her “Is that so? What makes you say that and what would you think if the particular man you might be thinking of now said that he only had a difficult life because of you?”
Or: “What would your parents have had to do to make it worse for you?” The more irritating the question, the better.
But it only works if you have a good level of trust in each other.
I think this is the lesson I fail to learn, but I need to.