15 Minutes

Louisa May Alcott once said, ~Fame is a pearl many dive for and only a few bring up. Even when they do, it is not perfect, and they sigh for more, and lose better things in struggling for them.~ Let me ask you this question, why are we as a society so fascinated with wanting to know or at least be informed on what certain celebrities are doing or not doing for that matter? In my own thinking, it’s the entertainment factor of it all as they give people something to talk about when they do random acts that are either weird, strange, or completely stupid. In any case, on a seemingly daily basis, we are bombarded with images and possibly scandalous/controversial news that either grabs our attention or has our ears immediately tune in to what is being said whether we like it or not.

Without a doubt, fame is considered a catch 22 as a person's name and face become well known, but what also becomes well known is one's private life as well. For the anonymity of both himself/herself and one's family from anyone and everyone from looking to make money off of getting any kind of photo or documented info is no longer something that can be hidden behind anymore. For the most part, anything and everything will be deemed as fair game in order to get the reaction, as well as, inside scoop of what would possibly make interesting news to the viewing public no matter how trivial it is such as going to the store to buy several rolls of toilet paper, going to the nearby gas station to put gas in the car, or simply going to the mailbox to put in/take out something fairly important.

It would be safe to say we've all said something we later regretted afterwards and it inevitably took several minutes or even days to smooth it over to the point where it was all forgotten. However, when it comes to being a celebrity the things said can most certainly come back to haunt that person to where he or she will try to apologize publicly in order to avoid causing any further damage to not only himself/herself personally, but also professionally as well. With such incidents as Michael Richard aka Kramer caught on a cell phone camera angry in a comedy club using the "N" word can take months or even years to have it possibly have forgotten, but unfortunately nobody in Hollywood rarely ever forgets leaving one's career vulnerable to suffer because of it.

For the question can be asked of you, what is the most outrageous thing a celebrity has done that you have seen on tv or read about that you ended up thinking to yourself or saying out loud WTF? Perfect examples would be Tom Cruise's jumping on the couch on Oprah's show to express how much he loves Katie Holmes, the whole Anna Nicole Smith situation being top story news instead of the war in Iraq, and most recently Britney Spears sharing her entire head bald. Essentially, Britney Spears is on a path heading towards a downward spiral that has many people concerned to where if she doesn't get help soon she lose much more than her career, she'll also lose her kids and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think KFed should get custody of the kids until she gets clean.

In retrospect, fame can give you so much and yet it can take away everything in a matter of seconds. The money, notoriety, status, friends, self-respect, dignity, reputation, and so much more can be gone and all a person has left with are the memories of someone who was at one time a major player in the industry. It's just a matter of making the right decisions because there is a time limit to make a positive difference because fame can literally swallow you whole and then spit you out. In the end, every celebrity today started out with 15 minutes of fame as they gradually created stellar careers for themselves, but for some celebrities such as Britney Spears it seems as if her countdown to self destruction is close at hand and if not handled immediately it's not going to be a pretty sight when then the clock winds down to 00:00:00.