Celebrity: How far would you go?

by Mike

Celebrity, in my opinion, is a drug. There are some that would sell their own grandmother to have it and some will even use murder to find some way of staying in the spotlight.

It’s almost like Gollum in the Lord of The Rings screaming “My precious” whenever he is closer to the ring. So if you hear a wag or wannabe reality television ‘star’ selling themselves in exchange for a fleeting moment in front of the camera, you know what has more then likely happened. OJ Simpson might just be a case in point.

In 1994 Mr Simpson was charged with the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman and was later acquitted. His search for the “real killer” was a publicity stunt and the only thing it achieved was a civil court ruling where he had to pay $33.5 million (16.6 million pounds) in damages to the victims’ families.

In late 2006, we saw seen the hype around the supposed book called “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer”, where he puts forth a hypothetical description of the murders. I never understood why a man who was acquitted of such a crime when there many who believed he was guilty would cast himself back into a line of suspicion and guilt by doing this. Apparently copies of the manuscript can be found online, but thankfully the publishers pulled the plug on the idea.

With his recent arrest for an incident in a hotel room, involving memorabilia, Simpson has ensured that he will be remembered more for events of a criminal nature rather then a distinguished sporting career. There is just some part of me that believes that deep inside his conscious that he craves the publicity and the fame that comes with it.

Obviously I cannot prove it but it makes me wonder how and why someone would do something like this. Are our lives that empty and shallow that we would consider notoriety by these means? When Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon did he believe he would be remembered as the man who took the life of a man who helped changed the course of music as we know it?

He walked past me and then I heard in my head, ‘Do it, do it, do it,’ over and over…I just pulled the trigger steady five times.

Mark David Chapman

The lure of being famous seems to take all forms and it is worrying what lengths some will go to in order to be remembered. We have seen so many crazy attempts to get the general public to take interest in someone; the only question is what’s next?

Thursday, September 20th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.