Fame & fortune
Fandango’s Provocative Question #192 asks us:
No, I wouldn’t sacrifice my personal life and privacy for fame. Not that my personal life is so great, but it’s mine.
But this is a tough question because with fame comes, I’m assuming, money, and with money comes power, and with power comes the ability for one to do whatever one wants in life.
If I’m famous, I’m thinking that I can buy all the privacy I want to protect my personal life and then hire as many publicists as needed to create a public persona for me that can be presented to the public. After all, there are a lot of celebrities who aren’t out there on talk shows or twittering or twattering all day, and the only time you hear about them is when they have a new movie or album or book to promote. So they have both fame and privacy.
And with enough money I could fake my own death and hire a look-alike to pretend to be me. Remember “Paul is Dead” and the Beatles replacing him with a look-alike? Boom. Fame, money, fake death, public replacement, privacy. I’d have it all! It could happen.
Of course, there’s the opposite and a person could be famous for a very bad thing. John Wayne Gacy was famous, and Charles Manson was famous, and that supermax prison in Colorado is filled with famous people. But then are they famous or infamous? I don’t want to be infamous.
So, to answer the question again, if I can have all of my criteria met, then yes, I’d sacrifice my personal life and privacy for fame. If I can’t, if I have to compromise in any way, then no, I wouldn’t.
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On a sidenote, this is day 30, the last day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). If you’re out there and you’ve blogged for these past 30 days, or written a poem a day for the last 30 days, or taken part in NaNoWriMo and written a book in the last 30 days, or taken 30 pictures a day or painted 30 paintings a day for the last 30 days, or just plain done anything for the last 30 days, congratulations!
Michael B. Fishman
Michaelsfishbowl 
Rejecting the money would be tough, but I’d hate to have a constant stream of pics of me in the news. “Famous billionaire writer looking frumpy for xxx days in a row!” Eesh
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haha! Paula–this made me laugh. Imagine having to put on full makeup every single day ’cause it’s way too scary without? Yeah, I’d pass on the billions…
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But the richest people are our trendsetters so it’s possible that billionaire writing looking frumpy could set the next fad and then you’d be frumpy multi-billionaire!
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Ooh!
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Good thought!
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There is no way I’d put it all out there for any amount of money. I like my privacy.
Remember that line from Martin Short’s character in “The Three Amigos”: “We’re not just famous–we IN famous!”
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I think it’s impossible to be completely off-grid, unless you didn’t travel ANYWHERE.
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It would be tough to do. Getting rid of all social media and cell phones and TV and credit cards would be about the closest I think we could get without driving up to Alaska and just walking into the woods. I’d last about two days with that solution. Or until my backpack full of Fritos ran out.
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🤔 Best pack a bag of Doritos, too.
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