Friday, January 09, 2004
The newest reality trend: celebrities as fame whores?
This trend first came to my attention when I started watching Paris Hilton on The Simple Life. Why, I wondered, would Paris Hilton want to give up her blissful existence of partying, drinking, making sex tapes and getting into fights with Shannon Doherty to live on a farm for 6 weeks just so she could be on reality television? I'm not buying her excuse that she did it to prove to people that she could. As a veteran watcher of reality TV (and I think a full year of this obsession is enough to earn me "veteran" status), I've learned that reality TV stars basically have two motives for appearing on reality TV: 1. Money. 2. Fame. (I suppose you could argue that finding love is a third motive, but honestly, if anyone at this point actually thinks they're going to find love on reality TV, they're an idiot.)
I know some of you may be thinking that celebrities on reality TV are not exactly a new phenomenon. What about the Osbournes? Or Nick and Jessica? But there's a key difference between the Osbournes and Paris Hilton, namely that the Osbournes (and Nick and Jessica, for that matter) don't have to really do anything to be on reality TV. They just have to live their lives. And since they're doing that anyway, why not garner some extra publicity by letting a couple of cameras follow them around? When you think about it, it's basically just multitasking at its finest.
But, you say, what about shows like Celebrity Mole or that one where Gabrielle Carteris lived in the same house as Corey Feldman? Well, I say, you must realize that the "celebrities" that appear on these shows are only celebrities in the sense that they used to be famous at some point in the very distant past. They are not, like Paris Hilton, regulars on Page Six. (Not that I read Page Six on a regular basis. But I would imagine they don't really run photos of Corey Feldman all that often.)
If it were only Paris Hilton doing this, I wouldn't be so perplexed, as we all know at this point that she's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. But now Donald Trump is jumping on the fame-whoring bandwagon with his new show, The Apprentice. I mean, really, what's in it for Donald Trump? The money? Whatever cut Mark Burnett's giving him has to be paltry compared to what he's worth overall. Is it the fame? At this point, Donald Trump has become something of a pop-culture icon, so it's hard to believe he would need to whore himself out for fame. And if he's trying to promote this "quality" image that he claims the Trump name stands for (to me, "Trump" says "decadent kitsch" more than it says "quality"), then I hardly think reality TV is the best way to do it. After all, "quality" and "reality television" shouldn't really be used in the same sentence. (Unless, of course, they're being used by me in an ironic sense.) So what gives?
This trend first came to my attention when I started watching Paris Hilton on The Simple Life. Why, I wondered, would Paris Hilton want to give up her blissful existence of partying, drinking, making sex tapes and getting into fights with Shannon Doherty to live on a farm for 6 weeks just so she could be on reality television? I'm not buying her excuse that she did it to prove to people that she could. As a veteran watcher of reality TV (and I think a full year of this obsession is enough to earn me "veteran" status), I've learned that reality TV stars basically have two motives for appearing on reality TV: 1. Money. 2. Fame. (I suppose you could argue that finding love is a third motive, but honestly, if anyone at this point actually thinks they're going to find love on reality TV, they're an idiot.)
I know some of you may be thinking that celebrities on reality TV are not exactly a new phenomenon. What about the Osbournes? Or Nick and Jessica? But there's a key difference between the Osbournes and Paris Hilton, namely that the Osbournes (and Nick and Jessica, for that matter) don't have to really do anything to be on reality TV. They just have to live their lives. And since they're doing that anyway, why not garner some extra publicity by letting a couple of cameras follow them around? When you think about it, it's basically just multitasking at its finest.
But, you say, what about shows like Celebrity Mole or that one where Gabrielle Carteris lived in the same house as Corey Feldman? Well, I say, you must realize that the "celebrities" that appear on these shows are only celebrities in the sense that they used to be famous at some point in the very distant past. They are not, like Paris Hilton, regulars on Page Six. (Not that I read Page Six on a regular basis. But I would imagine they don't really run photos of Corey Feldman all that often.)
If it were only Paris Hilton doing this, I wouldn't be so perplexed, as we all know at this point that she's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. But now Donald Trump is jumping on the fame-whoring bandwagon with his new show, The Apprentice. I mean, really, what's in it for Donald Trump? The money? Whatever cut Mark Burnett's giving him has to be paltry compared to what he's worth overall. Is it the fame? At this point, Donald Trump has become something of a pop-culture icon, so it's hard to believe he would need to whore himself out for fame. And if he's trying to promote this "quality" image that he claims the Trump name stands for (to me, "Trump" says "decadent kitsch" more than it says "quality"), then I hardly think reality TV is the best way to do it. After all, "quality" and "reality television" shouldn't really be used in the same sentence. (Unless, of course, they're being used by me in an ironic sense.) So what gives?
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