The Price of Fame

Fame is probably the only element of social strata that can be under and over estimated at the same time. When we wish we were famous, in a sense, we don’t know what we’re asking for. It comes with a heavy price tag. For starters, you can kiss personal privacy goodbye. And yet there are those who embrace it, revel in it, court it adventurously and flirt with it dangerously. The spotlight has a strange dichotomy about it that can make you and break you. Case and point – Paparazzi. There is not a celebrity who likes them and yet, it is those Tabloid pictures that rage like wild fire through magazine stands, internet pages and viral videos, boosting their name or image. And so the celebs put up with it. But let’s get down to the core issue – what makes the average celebrity tick? Is it fame, but I thought they already had that. Is it the desire to be ‘number 1’? Possibly. But what sort of elixir is fame that it causes them to quench it as if it is running out and still thirst for more as if they needed it?

Everyday life in Hollywood never fails to amuse me. Starting from the pathetic stories of starry-eyed college drop-outs trying to make it big, to the latest budding romance on the sets of the latest blockbuster, Hollywood manages to make its ‘citizens’ lives almost as ‘script-like’ as the characters they play on reel. I recently read of a celebrity couple who decided to tie the knot and who were getting ready to do the most important legal procedure before the actual ceremony – the Pre-Nuptial agreement. While I don’t intend to extrapolate what that is, I strongly recommend you to look it up and brace for a reaction from yourself. It seems almost impossible to have a wedding in Hollywood without such a contract. It is no wonder then that the average marriage in Tinsel town lasts less than two years!

After reading the lives of numerous celebs, it dawned on me sadly that, despite having everything that money could possibly buy, they somehow can never seem to afford true happiness and contentment. They look around trying to ‘buy’ it in the wrong places – extramarital affairs, drugs or crime. Somehow what they dreamt they would always have if they had money eludes them when they do. Another mirage in the desert of Fame. And when they don’t find it, they lose that discerning balance that either kept them sane or alive. And then comes the next desperate attempt to somehow go higher than they had gone, hoping to find that elusive something up there. And they falter, they fail and they fall. For some it takes decades, for others mere months. And when you think, it cannot get worse than that, loneliness hits like a freight train. It is no wonder then, that some of the biggest stars in the world were some of the loneliest people on the planet.

So what then do we conclude on these stars and their lives. Honestly, I don’t know. I’m glad they’re there. Or we’d all be bored. Am I happy for them, maybe. But how much do I really admire or respect them? Really can’t answer that. Sure there is the odd handful that has been able to successfully balance their famed lives and personal lives in a moral manner. But those are only the minority. As for the rest of the bunch, I suppose I can honestly say that they confuse me. After all, only a celebrity works hard all their lives to become well-known and then wear dark glasses in public to avoid being recognized!