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, July 14, 2009

Misc.: Patch Adams

Note: A number of the temporary and one-shot celebrities who make up this blog do not fit neatly into one of the blog's categories and hence have been listed below under Miscellaneous. Like all the others, they are a colorful lot.



Hunter "Patch" Adams is a most unusual physician--one who sometimes plies his profession dressed as a clown.

Adams came to the attention of most Americans in 1998 thanks to the movie "Patch Adams" starring Robin Williams as the good doctor.

A 1971 graduate of the Medical College of Virginia, Adams is one of those physicians who believes in the health benefits of humor, and he has worked on many fronts to help the sick, orphans and others in need in his unusual way.

Even when not dressed as a clown, Adams sports a ferocious, almost Salvidor Dali-like mustache that turns up obediently at the ends.

Adams in 1972 founded the Gesundheit! Institute to enlist the aid of other humor-friendly doctors. He and his cohorts have taken their caring, holistic message to many parts of the world since that time. What a guy!

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