About this Blog

"In the future everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes." So said the bleached-out, late lamented artist Andy Warhol. Having lived and worked in New York City, Warhol came to fully grasp the hold celebrity has on us. In this very famous sentence, he meant to point out that in a culture fixated on fame, many people will suddenly flash brightly onto the public screen, then--poof--will just as quickly disappear from public view--like shooting stars. Other individuals derive their celebrity from one stellar accomplishment (one hit song, one iconic role, etc.) that they never again match.

This blog is devoted to the one part of our celebrity culture that no one has written much about: temporary/one-shot celebrities.

The pace of modern life has quickened, and now we hear people speaking of someone's 15 seconds of fame. These "celebrities with a lower-case c" who will appear in this blog sometimes come to us from the world of entertainment, sometimes from the world of news. All are fascinating.

The need of our communications media for a continual stream of new material assures that we will have no end of colorful people who go quickly, where celebrity is concerned, from zero to hero (or villain) and back to zero. Now you see 'em, now you don't. What a crazy world, eh?

Temporary celebrities coming from the world of entertainment include one-hit recording artists; TV and movie icons who, although they might have had a great many accomplishments in their career, are remembered for one big role; standouts of reality TV; sports figures remembered for one remarkable accomplishment; and people whose celebrity came from one big role in a commercial or print ad.

News-based temporary celebrities come in many forms: mass/serial killers, other murderers of special note, sex-crime offenders, disgraced figures of government/military/business/media/religion, spies/traitors, hoaxers, femmes/hommes fatale, heroes, whistle blowers, inventors/innovators, and victims.

Celebrity Blogsburg will consider each category in turn.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Homme fatale Golan Cipel

The name Golan Cipel was temporarily familiar to a lot of Americans in 2004 due to his part in a New Jersey sex scandal.

Cipel is an Israeli who came to the Untied States to work as security advisor to New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, who had met Cipel in Israel in 2000.

McGreevey had assumed that high office in 2002 after having served in other offices of political prominence in his state. Cipel had been an officer in the Israeli Navy and had worked in media relations for his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but had very limitied credentials for the security post he was given in New Jersey.

Cipel broke with the governor and took a public relations job. Later, Cipel initiated a sexual harassment suit against McGreevey, and in 2004, the governor resigned and admitted that he, during his second marriage, had been in a sexual relationship with Cipel.

McGreevey, once again single, went on to write a memoir, The Confession, flog it on the Oprah Show, teach law and ethics at a New Jersey college, and enter studies at an Episcopal seminary. Cipel works in marketing.

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