Fame At Any Cost

~ Laura

As I was getting the kids ready for school this morning, one of the morning shows was on in the living room. I wandered in just as Levi Johnston dished the dirt about Sarah Palin with Maggie Rodriguez. Video here.

It sounds like their was some dysfunction going on in the Palin house, but pretty normal dysfunction — fighting between the parents and overworked parents not being home to watch the kids. There's a subtext in the Levi Johnston account about working mothers, but I'm going to go into that today. Let's just talk about Levi.

Before he knocked up the governor's daughter, this is a guy whose future involved manual labor. Nothing wrong with manual labor, but let's just say that Levi's options were limited. He isn't a Rhodes Scholar. Because he was sloppy with the birth control and because John McCain made a serious strategic error in choosing his running mate, Levi managed to land himself the first interview on the morning news shows. Maggie Rodriguez interviewed him, not Kathy Lee "Crazy Lady" Gifford. 

Levi's taking full advantage of the strange opportunity at fame. He could have gone into politics. Boy, wouldn't Levi and Meghan McCain made a wonderful political pair? (Did you see the picture that Meghan put out of herself on Twitter?) The new slutty face of the Republican party. 

But I think Levi is going to forgo politics and take the Jon Gosselin career path. He'll make fortune by doing interviews with Entertainment Tonight and by making party appearances. He'll be famous for being famous.

The steady diet of reality TV that we've had over the years has given ordinary people the opportunity to be famous. They don't have to have a particular talent or brains or connections. They just behave insanely in front of a camera and then they get on TV. Instant fame results in a life-style of body guards and day spas and free things. They have an entourage, and their hair is professionally done. People know who they are.

In the end, the entourage and the attention ruins them. They pander their children and betray their friends. I'm no friend of Palin's policies to the extent that she has actually policy preferences. We're not talking a heavy hitter here. But this Levi dirt is really disgusting. The fact that we're talking about him is really disgusting. I feel like we've hit an all time low.

Published by Laura

9 thoughts on “Fame At Any Cost”

  1. Is the irony/subtleness just a bit too much for me here, or is this post and linking not an example of talking about Levi Johnston, a person we all could and should safely ignore? Maybe I’m missing the irony/subtleness on Megan McCain too, but shouldn’t the only plausibly reaction be, “who cares about what pictures she puts out”, or even better, “who cares about Megan McCain at all”?

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  2. I know, Matt. I am fueling the fires a bit, aren’t I? I tried to transition to a critique of fame-obsessed culture, but not successfully. Another post in five minutes.

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  7. Not to beat a dead horse here, but your commentary on Meghan McCain (comparing her to Levi Johnston in this case) reminds me uncomfortably of the same issues I had when you compared Angelina Jolie to politics lite. Why the unnecessary attack on a *woman* not even apropos to anything in this post?

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  9. Am I being too rough on Meghan? No. It’s just funny. I don’t really care if someone puts silly pictures of themselves on Twitter, but she’s putting herself forward as a Republican pundit. She has been using Twitter and blogs very successfully to show herself as a political professional. There has been talk of her running for office. Then she puts out this picture of herself that looks like Halley Glassman doing a shot at a college kegger — not your typical face of the Republican party. I’m not saying I’m against the new sluttier face of the Republican party. It might work for them.

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