The idea of celebrity and the basic principles of what makes somebody famous are always changing. In today's media, it seems more and more common that ex-reality show "stars" are becoming more like mainstream celebrities.
This seems very strange to me, in that, to be on a reality show, you don't actually have to do anything except demographically fit well.
Then, once you're on a reality show, you aren't really doing anything except living your life in a controlled environment in front of millions of viewers. But here's the strange part: it seems like once you get off a reality TV show, you really only have four options:
1. You fade away into obscurity.
2. You get hired by another reality TV show.
3. You continue to try to milk your fame by appearing on lame VH1 specials and giving speeches in college towns.
4. You "accidentally" release a sex tape onto the black market and funnel all profits from video sales into a secret bank account.
Of these four options, option one seems to make the most sense. Just collect your paycheck and go home.
If you weren't given a rose on national television, the last thing you'd want to do is keep bringing attention to it. You would want to just collect the pieces of your shattered self-esteem and go home, perfectly content to never hear the name Trista for the rest of your life. What you wouldn't want to do is to go around, telling everyone that you were unable to win the heart of an emotionally vapid woman.
Most contestants on reality shows are, in essence, losers, and why they would want to keep reminding people of their public failures is beyond me.
Option two seems a little more reasonable. So you weren't successful on your first reality show run? Well, now you know how to play the games: You're older, wiser, more experienced, so you decide to try again, on the "All-Star" version. But what happens when you lose again? Sure, the first time you can blame it on the hectic pacing, the excitement of it all and your own naivety; but now there's no excuse. You knew what you were doing, and you still walked away empty-handed. Congratulations, loser, you just publicly humiliated yourself twice.
Option three gets me a little frustrated. Last week, Danny Roberts from the Real World came to campus and gave a speech on modern homosexuality. Which is fine; he's using his pseudo-celebrity status to talk to people about a hot-button, relevant issue. Whether you agree with him or not, he's out there trying to spread a message. What he's not doing, unlike a lot of other former reality TV stars, particularly former Real Worlders, is touring around, trying to eke as much as they can out of their fifteen minutes by talking at college-town bars and shopping malls. Are these really the people we want to be listening to? They were on TV for a season; what are their credentials as a public speaker? What can they even talk about? "Hey, my name's Steve, I got some action in a hot tub. Any questions?"
Former reality show castmembers have fake-celebrity status, and there are people out there who are willing to listen to them. If there are people who are willing to listen, they should capitalize on it and have something pertinent to say, not use their superficial presence to hawk the grand opening of a Sam Goody and get free drinks.
As for option four, I'm relatively confused. I've never considered watching someone catch and eat a rat a natural precursor to wanting to see that same person naked.
Paul Metz is a secondary education gradutae student and writes 'Support your Local Cynic' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Paul at pjmetz@bsu.edu.
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