FAME FATAL

The twenties century gave birth to superstars, pin-ups and celebrities. It replaced religion with fame, saints with idols, and churches with cinemas and supermarkets. This transformation created a new social disease called “fame-ism” a desperate need to become a public figure at any price for at least “fifteen minutes” Everybody desires the mysterious Fame-Fatal with her seductive powers, which tempt fragile egos to seek security and fulfillment in her arms.

Like midnight butterflies the devotees fly with all their force just to die in her luminous embrace, taking on overdose of flashlights.

Nobody, though, talks about the side effects of this addiction. The sinister side of the “ medal of honor” the price one has to pay-the soul.

An addiction to this lethal cocktail with equal doses of fortune dreams, cheap thrills, pain killers, plastic joy, neon lights, diamond tears, cosmetic surgery smiles, and finally tragic death broadcasted on prime time television. It makes us mortals believe fame is worth fighting and sacrificing ourselves for.

This battle of elbows and headlines is immortalized through the camera lens. All those images creating history are like flashes in the dark curse of fame. In the asphalt jungle where the paparazzi are the hunters and master graduates of the star academy becomes the pray. But there is hope for all those who are not daring enough to become martyrs. There is a possibility of experiencing “safe-life” in front of the cold glass screens of our home televisions. In virtual reality, where one can feel , see, breath and experience what we call “being” ,harmlessly the truth lost its meaning. This artificial world of commercial sit-coms, news and cartoons created its own rules. One is sucked into the brainwashing machinery of this endless kaleidoscope of images, where all characters become products independent of their heredity. In this world Che Guevara, Marilyn Monroe, and Michael Jackson, have become Mickey Mouse logos. Like man-made androids with no past and no future they exist in the collective memory as pictures with a price tag and a small description “ Icon “. Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Sid Vicious, Princess Diana, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Huston, not to mention Anna Nicole Smith got their biggest headlines and media coverage at the time of parting. The whole story reminds us of the ritual of throwing Christians to lions in ancient Rome. The centuries are passing by, but human nature remains the same. We need to believe in a good saint or a prophet to survive. If God don’t exist we have to invent him, and perhaps become one.