The Price of Fame

Andy Warhol is famous for saying that everyone should achieve "15 minutes of fame" in their lifetime, referring (according to Wikipedia) "to the fleeting condition of celebrity that attaches to an object of media attention". Well, this week the British Actress Keira Knightley went on record heavily criticising young people whose single goal in life was fame and fortune, saying that if those same people truly wanted to become rich, they should aspire to a career in banking which achieves the same financial end-state but without the additional pressure of errant paparazzi.

I do find the whole subject of the cult of celebrity very interesting indeed. The glamour, wealth and popularity portrayed in the glossy celebrity magazine is clearly very attractive to many. But none of that is anything new. But, for those that exist within that artificial bubble, reputation becomes possibly the single biggest asset they possess, far more so than money. And most that aspire to become rich and famous probably do not realise that maintaining reputation takes a considerable amount of money, time and effort. Reputations that take many years to build can take seconds to destroy and, in doing so, the fragile celebrity ecosystem that surrounds the them is destroyed too. The ability to earn huge sums of money disappears over night, often never to return.

So, when you open the cover of Vogue and long to be sat on that gin palace in Cannes, surrounded by fawning nobodies, well, just give a passing moment to how they got there. And how quickly they could come back down to earth.