Warhol Has A Lot To Answer For

January 19, 2008

ALTHOUGH Andy Warhol was only predicting in 1968 when he said, `In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes' you can't help wishing that he hadn't said it.

Just maybe if he hadn't thought of it, it wouldn't have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course, he did realise his mistake and in ensuing years he tried to confuse the issue, saying to interviewers, "In the future, 15 people will be famous" and "In 15 minutes, everybody will be famous" but to no avail. The idea of everyone being entitled to 15 minutes of fame took root in the universal psyche and now it's happened.

IN fact, all those things Warhol said have happened. Everybody, at least everybody under about 35, gets their 15 minutes of fame on Facebook or Youtube _ even eight-year-olds have themselves posted on Youtube strutting their stuff for a waiting world. Just what is the fascination for both those who post their lives for public consumption and those who, apparently, have an endless thirst for watching them is difficult to understand. Is it a sign of insecurity, that it makes people feel better to see that others are as dull, tacky and insincere as they fear themselves to be? And for those posting the endlessly trivial details of their lives and thoughts, the photoshopped snaps, the intimate details which they would never discuss with the checkout person at the supermarket _ why is it different to share all that with people you don't know and probably wouldn't care to know if you met them? But quite possibly I'm missing the point. It obviously does make people feel better about themselves, both watchers and watched, or they wouldn't do it.

WHAT I'm not taking into account here, of course, is the fact that these little pockets of `fame' are actually training for the possibility, in fact the increasing probability, that celebrity will descend upon them for no apparent reason except a flair for fame. When Paris Hilton first appeared on the radar as a celebrity with absolutely nothing celebrated about her, she was a phenomenon. How, we marvelled, could it be that a plain, pop-eyed, overbleached, overdieted, not very bright young woman could become famous simply for being famous, without having to actually do anything much at all. Many people assumed that the notoriety achieved by her amateur porn video would fade away, and Paris herself blend back into the wallpaper. But, as recent history shows us, this was the exact opposite of what happened. Paris left porn behind and just became more and more famous, still without doing anything to be famous for. So famous has she become that she can charge half a million dollars just to attend an event and there are event organisers lining up to pay. And, in her wake, all sorts of other people have become famous for nothing in particular. Any person who appears on television, even if it is to fail to win a talent quest or lose out in some wacko reality challenge show can, if they are quick and adept enough, translate these brief moments of exposure into at least a period of Paris Hilton like celebrity.

THE most recent example is the pimply Melbourne kid who became a cult figure after throwing a party while his parents were away which got out of hand. This is not a rare occurrence _ although few parents are quite insouciant enough to leave a 16-year-old alone in the house for weeks at a time _ but most teenagers are horrified by the turn events take and repent of their brashness immediately. Not Corey Worthington/Delaney, he saw his opportunity and grabbed it with both hands. It was his chance at fame and he took it, despite his poor complexion and bad sunglasses he swaggered to centre stage offering himself as a party organiser. Whether he has the grit and determination of a Paris Hilton, to grab the opportunity created by his poor judgement and make himself into a lasting name, or whether he fades like the spent firework of Casey Donovan, onetime Australian Idol, only time will tell.

BUT you have to consider whether anyone who was not of the Youtube generation would have had the utter gall to take a distrastrously expensive and embarrassing abuse of trust and turn it into a career opportunity. Especially considering that he hasn't even grown into his pimples yet. What I'm not looking forward to is the next part of Warhol's prediction: `In 15 minutes everyone will be famous' . . . a world full of Coreys, cor!