Schadenfreude is a secret pleasure, usually best kept to ourselves, but guiltily felt by all of us now and then. My particular vice in this area, are the rewards that reality TV bestows upon the feckless, stupid, semi-literate, and most of all, totally talentless, individuals who seem to populate their shows.
So when one of the talentless gets into financial trouble (usually based upon their assumption that the money will continue to pour in), I always secretly hug myself in glee, as they head down the toilet of life again, and end up stacking shelves, or unemployed on a council estate somewhere.
In the US this new reality route to fame can be as successful as in the UK .... Jersey Shore was one such show (the UK made its own version called .... wait for it ... 'Geordie Shore'), and perhaps (after the Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity franchises), the first globally successful one of the trash reality genre, and gave the world Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi ... look her up as I am not linking!!
However, before reality TV came along to offer opportunity's to those who are so shallow that they would break their ankle steeping into the deep end of their personalities, there was the rise to the top (and hoped for fall) of naked bimbo's. These ladies usually followed a well trodden path to the top .... show flesh, .... lots of it, try your hand at singing solo, or by joining a band, self publicise every event in your lives on social media, and by feeding the tabloid press every little trauma. Have multiple affairs, marriages, divorces, children, if desperate, show more flesh via constant diet bikini shots, or as a very last resort record a sex tape with a one night stand, etc, etc ...
However, despite this seemingly endless sea of talentless trash washing up on the shoreline of our media, it appears that there is some balance in the world after all. The topless (and bottomless when it suited), model Katie Price aka 'Jordan' is currently being reported as being on the verge of bankruptcy. She has been given 12 weeks to formulate a creditor payment plan or be declared a bankrupt.
She rose to fame largely before reality TV shows, following the traditional bimbo route, and reportedly she has blown an estimated fortune of £45m (yes really, £45m!!), with her personality based businesses going bust (if you pardon the pun), after an extravagant lifestyle of plastic surgery, three failed marriages, lots of boyfriends, multiple holidays, bad house renovations, hair extensions, and unnecessary staff. The country house has allegedly fallen into less usage, with the swimming pool and tennis courts said to be closed. It's currently valued at £2m. Her next court hearing is on the 30th October 2018.
Now forgive me, but this woman's rise to fame and current appearances on reality TV, was initially based solely upon her willingness to take her clothes off, show everything she had, have a leaked sex-tape (which showed us what little she hadn't shown us before), and 'writing' some books. I say write, as they could all be ghost written, I just don't know or actually care. Her current woes seem to stem from a reckless spending lifestyle, and the mistake of thinking that taking your clothes off, and having a 'reality' TV show on one of the freeview TV channels, is a substitute for being a truly talented entertainer.
She of course is not the only one of these talentless (or even talented) celebrities to make this mistake. Her apparent demise was foreshadowed by the fall of the other great wannabe, sometime singer, sometime nude model, sometime celebrity Kerry Katona. No doubt Ms Price's desperate scrabble aged 40, to getting back to having some sort of real celebrity monetary value again, will be just as entertaining as that of the 38 year old Ms Katona's constant diets, only fans semi-nudity, and newspaper bikini shots (that apparently being all she has to offer), and family hysterics. However I suspect that Ms Price has more money left than the headlines suggest. Ms Katona on the other hand will seemingly try just about anything, and every time she does she apparently has a photographer nearby to accidentally catch her doing that anything.
I use the term justice by the way, because Britain's insatiable love affair with talentless individuals (often in Chav oriented reality shows, where women sometime prostitute themselves publicly, disguised as 'love'), has created a class of so called celebrity's, who should have no reason to obtain wealth, because they do nothing but be themselves. Ms Price was without doubt the forerunner and archetype for these people, so perhaps has more about her than those who copied her route to instant fame.
However, despite it being wrong, I can't help but have enjoyed reading about her financial travails.
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| Reality TV Throws Up "Talent" Like This .... |
So when one of the talentless gets into financial trouble (usually based upon their assumption that the money will continue to pour in), I always secretly hug myself in glee, as they head down the toilet of life again, and end up stacking shelves, or unemployed on a council estate somewhere.
In the US this new reality route to fame can be as successful as in the UK .... Jersey Shore was one such show (the UK made its own version called .... wait for it ... 'Geordie Shore'), and perhaps (after the Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity franchises), the first globally successful one of the trash reality genre, and gave the world Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi ... look her up as I am not linking!!
However, before reality TV came along to offer opportunity's to those who are so shallow that they would break their ankle steeping into the deep end of their personalities, there was the rise to the top (and hoped for fall) of naked bimbo's. These ladies usually followed a well trodden path to the top .... show flesh, .... lots of it, try your hand at singing solo, or by joining a band, self publicise every event in your lives on social media, and by feeding the tabloid press every little trauma. Have multiple affairs, marriages, divorces, children, if desperate, show more flesh via constant diet bikini shots, or as a very last resort record a sex tape with a one night stand, etc, etc ...
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| All Those Holidays Soon Add Up .... |
However, despite this seemingly endless sea of talentless trash washing up on the shoreline of our media, it appears that there is some balance in the world after all. The topless (and bottomless when it suited), model Katie Price aka 'Jordan' is currently being reported as being on the verge of bankruptcy. She has been given 12 weeks to formulate a creditor payment plan or be declared a bankrupt.
She rose to fame largely before reality TV shows, following the traditional bimbo route, and reportedly she has blown an estimated fortune of £45m (yes really, £45m!!), with her personality based businesses going bust (if you pardon the pun), after an extravagant lifestyle of plastic surgery, three failed marriages, lots of boyfriends, multiple holidays, bad house renovations, hair extensions, and unnecessary staff. The country house has allegedly fallen into less usage, with the swimming pool and tennis courts said to be closed. It's currently valued at £2m. Her next court hearing is on the 30th October 2018.
Now forgive me, but this woman's rise to fame and current appearances on reality TV, was initially based solely upon her willingness to take her clothes off, show everything she had, have a leaked sex-tape (which showed us what little she hadn't shown us before), and 'writing' some books. I say write, as they could all be ghost written, I just don't know or actually care. Her current woes seem to stem from a reckless spending lifestyle, and the mistake of thinking that taking your clothes off, and having a 'reality' TV show on one of the freeview TV channels, is a substitute for being a truly talented entertainer.
She of course is not the only one of these talentless (or even talented) celebrities to make this mistake. Her apparent demise was foreshadowed by the fall of the other great wannabe, sometime singer, sometime nude model, sometime celebrity Kerry Katona. No doubt Ms Price's desperate scrabble aged 40, to getting back to having some sort of real celebrity monetary value again, will be just as entertaining as that of the 38 year old Ms Katona's constant diets, only fans semi-nudity, and newspaper bikini shots (that apparently being all she has to offer), and family hysterics. However I suspect that Ms Price has more money left than the headlines suggest. Ms Katona on the other hand will seemingly try just about anything, and every time she does she apparently has a photographer nearby to accidentally catch her doing that anything.
I use the term justice by the way, because Britain's insatiable love affair with talentless individuals (often in Chav oriented reality shows, where women sometime prostitute themselves publicly, disguised as 'love'), has created a class of so called celebrity's, who should have no reason to obtain wealth, because they do nothing but be themselves. Ms Price was without doubt the forerunner and archetype for these people, so perhaps has more about her than those who copied her route to instant fame.
However, despite it being wrong, I can't help but have enjoyed reading about her financial travails.
This story has parallels with your previous one about lottery winners - bottom line; most people aren't good with money.
ReplyDeleteThese "celebrities" despite our disdain do earn their money as opposed to lottery winners, and we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss their talent; is being born with good looks and a character to flaunt it any less a talent than being born with the body of an athlete and the drive to win a gold medal?
The blame for reality TV should rest with the audience who for some reason watch it.
Sorry mate ... I am happy to dismiss any talent that consists solely of taking your clothes off, and displaying your wares to everyone in the world for money. Ms Price was no great beauty when she started, but had a large amount of plastic surgery (not least on her breasts) but also on her face (nose). Good looks might well be described as good luck, but not a talent.
DeleteHow is being born with the physique of a basketball player or a sprinter any more a "talent" than someone born with good looks? They are all out of our control, along with the character needed to realise the career which utilises the body you're born with.
DeleteYour use of sports stars is a good example of why I think you are wrong to equate good physical fortune with stardom.
DeleteIn the U.S. population, about 14.5% to 15.8% of adult US men are over 6 foot tall. There are about 120 million men over 18 in the US. That makes about 17–18.9 million adult men in the US are over 6 foot tall i.e are physically likely to be able to play pro basket ball if good enough.
20 players on average per roster and 30 teams in the two leagues. So out of millions of prospective players who are physically able to play, only 600 are professionals .... the reason? Despite being physically able to do it, unless you train and work hard, and enhance your skills to make your self supremely capable, you won't become a star.
Being physically attractive is also an attribute, but a woman's willingness to show her t*ts and p*ssy for men to look at, is not a skill or ability. It requires no training to reach a level of excellence. Just a simple bit of luck to get the right amount of media attention.
So I don't find your argument remotely convincing ... you are comparing apples and pears. thanks for the comment Vroomfondel.
To express a talent the old adage - The harder I work the luckier I get - seems to apply. Just being born with good looks requires no hard work, unless you count the skill of the plastic surgeon these girls use to enhance what nature gave them.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteShe was declared bankrupt in 2019, and was £2.3million in debt. She agreed to repay £12,000 per month to her creditors. She failed to so as she had apparently hoped that by posing on the OnlyFans website her legion of fans would effectively bail her out ... but time has moved on, and she is not a draw, she is just an ageing ex-glamor model ... she has been forced to slash the subscribers fees on her OnlyFans website by 50 per cent from £11-per-month.
ReplyDeleteIn this, she was following the example of Kerry Katona who apparently has made a good amount of money, and cleared her debts by this OnlyFans route. However despite Ms Price believing that she would clear a million pounds on the site, she has possibly missed the boat.
She is now constantly flirting with prison as her debts become due ... only a last minute payment of traffic fines in January 2022 stopped her being arrested. She was on a 16 week suspended sentence and banned from driving (again), after flipping her car while under the influence and being already disqualified.
However, despite owing millions Ms Price has apparently continued to enjoy a lavish lifestyle with frequent exotic holidays, including a visit to Las Vegas with her boyfriend. She apparently still gets paid for magazine interviews and TV work, including the latest on Channel 4, where she attempts to renovate her £2million country mansion aka 'Mucky Mansion'.
Now it has been reported in the Daily Mirror, that the 43-year-old's total debts are now up to a whopping £3.2 million. They claim that she has managed to avoid paying tax of £176,621 by closing her cosmetics company Jordan Trading Ltd, with a creditor distribution of just 8.19p in the £ made to the unsecured creditors - and this means the taxman can expect to receive just £15,755.
Her incredibly long history of motoring offences (22 and counting), would have seen anyone else jailed many times, but somehow she has avoided that final disgrace .... fame it seems still has its rewards and she hasn't had to pay the full price for her exploits.
Thanks for the update. She had long ago fallen off my radar, so haven't followed her life trajectory.
Delete