Whatever happen to….?

Personally I can’t think of anything more disagreeable than chasing fame, but in this celebrity, overnight reality show success obsessed world it’s clear that there are plenty of people that don’t share my worldview.

However, for those that do crave celebrity, I guess it’s wise to ensure that any attainment of fame is suitably accompanied by complementary attainment of funds. After all, you really don’t want to find yourself in the situation where your earning potential is waning faster than your star; for where notoriety extends beyond the income generating opportunities, alternative, every-day employment is never going to be a realistic prospect.

For example, imagine finding out that the occupant in the cubicle next to you is Howard Jones. Face it, you’d see that floppy fringe in your mind’s eye, every time you looked at him and you’d half expect him to turn up at meetings tailed by a bloke called Jed or something who would emphasis the key points of Howard's presentation through the medium of mime.

Similarly, a friend of mine claims to have once held a summer job in a branch of Sainsburys that also provided employment for one Matthew Corbett in the quieter Sooty years.

Alledgedly making the "Sooty naked" joke with you hand from behind a shelving unit became a sackable offence...

Though I guess you can at least imagine how Jones or Corbett got through the interview stage. Whereas current cause celebres like Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse may wish to think carefully about how quickly they allow what earnings they’ve achieved to date to errrr...'go up in smoke', given that they’re unlikely to be making the shortlist of any responsible civvy street job opportunity in the near future.

Which is possibly the ultimate curse for the ‘famous for being famous’ trench of reality show stars that recent years have produced. Big Brother is surely at the forefront of this movement, providing future potential employers with a unique opportunity of a prolonged interview (and you were worried about your Facebook profile...). Perhaps ‘Nasty’ Nick Bateman’s ultimate come-uppance for all the lying and deceit, will have been that I suspect many potential employers will have trust issues.

Similarly once you’ve witnessed the high-pitched squawking that Marco emitted in his role as sultan of the ‘lipgloss bitches’ it’s hard to imagine that the law student was deluged with hundreds of training contract offers on graduation. Indeed it was the fear of damaging her future career that drove a previous year's contestant from the same profession, to walk off the show a few days in. I guess she may in doing so have opened herself up to concerns about her ability to think something through properly upfront, but the fact that I can't recall her name suggests it was probably the lesser of the two available evils.

Charlie from this year’s offering of housemates doesn't at least seem to have any career prospects to jeopardise, but all the same the screaming harpie had probably better hope she finds herself a footballer, because her high-maintenance bitching ways have hardly commended her for any paid employment that involves interaction with the public, fellow workers, or well anyone basically.

So bearing all of this in mind, I can quite understand why Shaunie from this year's Big Brother would chose to try and shuffle through Manchester airport with hoodie up and eyes cast down. After all he's unlikely to make a lifetime's quantity of funding out of his post-show opportunities, so probably best to try and let the public profile die as quickly as possible.

Then again attempts at anonymity work so much better if you don't simultaneously attract attention to yourself with the brighest pair of canary yellow shoes I have ever had the misfortune to witness.