Published: June 14, 2009 11:21 pm      

BILL EGGERT | Famous for 15 minutes

Back in 1968, Pittsburgh native son Andy Warhol predicted, “In the future, everyone will become world-famous for 15 minutes.”

At the time, everyone outside of Warhol’s “The Factory” laughed at the notion. Decades later, we are amazed to discover that in retrospect, Warhol was a visionary on par with Nostradamus.

Thanks to new technology developing at warp speed, practically anyone can have his

15 minutes in the spotlight. Not only do many people have a Facebook page on the Web (celebrating themselves for potentially everyone on the planet), but “regular” folks can “twitter” with show biz celebs like Ashton Kutcher.

The Web site YouTube allows anyone with a camera and PC to create his own films and share them with the world by transferring them to YouTube. The other celebration of self is the reality shows on TV. Relatively cheap to produce, reality shows such as “Survivor” and “American Idol” are a godsend to networks financially reeling from the last TV strike and now the economy.

We’ve become a nation of voyeurs, tuning in with high numbers. The latest craze is the TLC show “Jon & Kate +8,” featuring an eastern Pennsylvania couple with a set of twins and septuplets. Ratings have skyrocketed with tabloid revelations of alleged infidelities by both spouses. Viewers, it seems, cannot get enough of this weekly marital train wreck. We wonder how all this media attention will affect their children’s sense of ... reality.

The other reality fad is contestant shows such as “American Idol.” Even Donald Trump has his show, “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“American Idol” casts an unflinching eye on young singing wannabes. While some actually have talent, too many are in a state of denial (as well as being hearing impaired) regarding their singing voices.

Even more excruciating is these individuals’ emotional meltdowns on camera after being rejected. How fragile are the psyches of America’s youths today? An alarming number of surveys reflect American youths’ obsession with becoming famous. They have no interest in working hard to achieve something that merits fame; they just want to become famous.

Some of these shows do shine a light on some very talented, but heretofore unknown, individuals. The current media darling is Britain’s Susan Boyle, a sweet and dowdy middle-aged woman with an angelic voice.

Even Simon Cowell was impressed by her – although she landed in a hospital, suffering from exhaustion!

The fascination with the reality shows kicked into high gear in 2002 with MTV’s “The Osbournes,” starring rocker Ozzy Osbourne, his pooch-loving wife, Sharon, and their then-dysfunctional kids Jack and Kelly. Ozzy set fatherhood back a hundred years with his occasional lapses into reality and his spaced-out mutterings that screamed for subtitle translations.

Some people may remember the first home-setting reality show, a 1973 PBS series called “An American Family.” This

12-part weekly documentary featured a California family named (ironically) the Louds, consisting of the parents and their five grown children. The series profiled the family against the backdrop of the 1970s, as well as the dissolution of the parents’ marriage. Pundits then felt the cameras contributed to the breakup.

I wonder sometimes if these newly minted reality celebs realize what they are getting into.

Many wilt under the harsh lights of the fishbowl environment. The parasitic paparazzi, still blamed by many for the death of Princess Diana, become more aggressive each year.

Where will it all end? Maybe with a reality show where the cameras are turned on the paparazzi, hounding their every move.



Bill Eggert is a Johnstown resident.