There was a time when to be famous, a person actually had to have some sort of talent. In those days, the world didn’t idealize someone for doing nothing. To be a celebrity, you had to actually have a gift or a trait that the rest of society found appealing.
Celebrities haven’t had to meet those qualifications in a while, but with the advent of reality TV, the standards for today’s celebrities are lower than ever. This week, the latest entertainment news is that Nadya Suleman, the famed “Octo-mom” has signed a deal to have her own reality show.
Personally, I can’t imagine wanting to share all the personal details of my life with the viewing public. There are times when my life could probably provide a full week’s worth of material for Dr. Phil, but unlike some of these celebrities, I enjoy keeping my personal life to myself.
Unfortunately, the 14 children that Suleman has do not get a say. Whether they like it or not, they are going to be in the public spotlight through all of their personal ups and downs.
I’m not a big fan of the “Octo-mom,” but she’s not alone in hoisting her children into the public spotlight for her own personal gain. She’s just following in the footsteps of people like John and Kate Gosselin from “John and Kate Plus Eight” or the Duggar Family, whose show “18 Kids and Counting” airs on TLC. Who knows what those children would say about having their lives on display for a viewing audience every week or about viewing mommy and daddy’s marital troubles on the headlines of tabloids across the country. I would imagine that would be difficult, but as these parents keep saying, they only sign on for these series for the good of their children.
Those are just a few of the infinite number of television shows that create celebrities out of people who have nothing but a stunning need to procreate, and even that could conceivably be considered a talent, in a mid-way sideshow kind of way. (See the amazing single mother as she struggles to raise 14 children without suffering a mental breakdown.)
However, people with infinitely less talent, have also been turned into celebrities overnight. Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie became celebrities just by having money and wanting to flaunt it. Countless individuals are turned into celebrities just by being seen on a reality show, no matter how badly they perform on that show. (Sometimes they get more stardom for a bad performance than a good one.)
So if you want to be famous without much effort or any real talent, you have some options, either have as many children as possible (preferably at one time), and then do your best to exploit them (for their benefit) or just showcase the fact that you really and truly have no talent in some sort of talent competition. Follow that course, and you too could end up with your own reality show.