"" Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog: The Fame Game

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Fame Game


There's speculation on E-News that the split between power couple Seal and Heidi Klum is not all that it seems. Despite the official line of 'having grown apart', both are still wearing their wedding bands and neither have filed for divorce.

There's also the convenient fact that both have much to gain from extra publicity at this point in time. Seal has a new album out and is touring to promote it. Heidi is up for another Runway Model show. Far be it from me to suggest that the split may be in some way manufactured but...

I'm reminded of a superb book written about how individuals can go about developing beneficial media relationships called "It" by Paula Froelich. If you ever had aspirations to be famous one day, this book is the only handbook you need. 

In "It" (2005) Paula, herself a reporter for the New York Post's entertainment sections and an Entertainment Tonight correspondent, spills the goss on publicity and PR - how it works and more importantly, why it works so well for attention hungry celebrities.

If you've ever aspired to get in the news, there's no better place to start than by reading "It", where Paula explains how the fame game works in practice - from the inside out. It's a fascinating read, even if you just want to have all your suspicions confirmed about the so-called 'news' we see about celebrities on a daily basis.

Artists, writers, actors and musicians are all better off these days if they aspire to manage the media, rather than fall victim to it. Better to feed the media interesting stories about you, rather than let them dig around to find something unsavory. 

Better to be the inspired source of gossip than its hapless recipient. In other words. make yourself more interesting than anything people can say about you. As in the lyrics from Seal himself, in his first release back in 1991: "Because we're never gonna survive, unless we get a little crazy."

To Your Success.

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