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‘BEST’ SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A SCANDAL…
Ever alert to celebrity trends, we note a new Sub-Celebrity Life Form raising its head above the boggy muck: Supporting Actors in Scandals who cash in on their roles for their own disgrace-driven 15 minutes.
Here on the blog, we use the term Balloon Boy Celebrity for those generally talentless celeb.s who rise from thin air and/or Reality TV to 15-minute fame before popping and vanishing. These celeb.s may create their own scandals but aren’t born from existing scandal sludge.
This new breed of ‘celeb.’ gain note/notoriety as bit players in scandals starring someone else. Should they be deemed ‘Back-stabbers’? ‘Bottom-Feeders?’ What name fits the bill?
Last week alone, David Letterman’s Blackmailer was found guilty. John Edwards Enablers Andrew Young and his wife found they face possible jail time. (Does anyone understand why? Because they ‘withheld’ the Edwards sex tape? Shouldn’t they be thanked for that?) In any case, they can pay their legal bills with new ill-gotten gains. No, they didn’t find another Love Child to claim.
But Young– Edwards’ infamous ‘beard’ who claimed paternity of Edwards’ baby with Rielle Hunter– has come out with his side of the sordid story in THE POLITICIAN. Plus, Eliot Spitzer’s former confidante– more an Onlooker than Enabler to Spitzer’s trainwreck– serves up his own scandal-saga book which Spitzer & co. denounce.
Who are your nominees for ‘Best’ supporting player in a scandal? Are there any I am missing or mentally blocking? And is there any hope of nipping this new blackmailing black-’bearded’ breed in the bud? (Note to Book Publishers: I personally know dozens of young authors more worthy of publication than Andrew Young…)
(photos: oxfordpress.com. improper.com, zimbio.com)
Linda Tripp will always win the prize for me. What a creature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Tripp
YES, Linda Tripp was the Original Model for sure–
Thanks Caitlin for this useful and scary Wiki link; I was intrigued by this tidbit from the Wiki World:
“It has been alleged that Linda Tripp was involved in leaking information about an alleged affair between former President George H. W. Bush and a staffer named Jennifer Fitzgerald. It has also been speculated that this may explain why she was not rehired to her old White House position despite calls from many conservatives to Bush’s son, former President George W. Bush, to do so;[12] however, Tripp has publicly denied this” allegation as “ludicrous” and “a complete fabrication.”[5]
this post was funny and sharp and yes, i agree linda tripp is a good example, one who really made a name for herself. no wonder she got all that plastic surgery later.
Thanks Livvy and always good to hear from you. Yes, you’re right– I’d forgotten about all the plasic surgery Linda T. bought with her ill-gotten gains. And Paula Jones famously bought a nose job… Just this mention of Linda Tripp has brought back the Clinton era all too vividly. I need some sleep–
Cheers– Elizabeth
Linda Tripp is sure a, maybe even THE prize winner. Others I can think of, have managed to slip quickly into obscurity–
- O.J. Simpson’s pool boy, Kato Kaelin [thank God he faded before the advent of (un)reality shows! We were already briefly threatened w/ his "acting career."];
- OJ’s “Dream Team” of lawyers,
– “Rev.” Ted Haggard (or is it Haggart?)’s male prostitute/coke dealer & the guy who claimed to be Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s boy toy [fortunately, I can't remember either; I'd hate to give any brain space to them, much as I enjoyed seeing their parties of the first part dethroned!]; – - Gary Hart’s boat bimbette (I could remember her name if I tried, which is why I won’t– Even back at the time it coincided somewhat w/ the motel fling of Tammy Eyeliner’s Rev. husband, & I couldn’t keep ‘em straight– oh, darn! One of them came to me– Donna Rice?).
– And, back in the present, there’s any number of Tiger’s mistresses. Saw on some tabloid show, 3 of them whore themselves out in bikinis for a Howard Stern gimmick “beauty contest,” and another one, who backed out, has been touring the tabloid shows repeatedly, claiming, inter alia, that she had 2 abortions for Tiger. Geez, fool me once, shame on him; fool me twice…
Yeesh, now my brain needs a shower! Bonne nuit.
Wow, a ‘stellar’ list here, Lupins! I am impressed with your powers of recall and I can totally relate to needing a brain-shower. Especially after dredging up Kato K. from memory’s vault. So true that he’d have jumped on the Reality TV bandwagon… Yes, Donna Rice, didn’t she do ads for ‘No Excuses’ jeans?… And of course the bevy of Tiger’s Mistresses– they will be ‘entertaining’ us for years to come…Thanks for descending into the muck to bring back these prime examples, Lupins– and hope the brain-shower keeps your thoughts pure until the next sub-celeb. eruption in about 10 minutes… Cheers! Elizabeth
LOL ON THE POST
AND A POX ON ALL THEIR HOUSES
I VOTE “BOTTOM_FEEDER’ AS NAME
Thanks for the LOL and I hear you about that POX–
but
their houses will all be mansions, given how Disgrace pays these days…
How about Joseph A. “Joey” Buttafuoco, whose wife was shot in the face by Amy Fisher when Joey tried to end his affair with her? He then went on to appear in various media outlets including Fox Networks’ Celebrity Boxing and Howard Stern.
In Celebrity Boxing, bizarrely enough, he was supposed to face off with John Wayne Bobbitt, another “balloon boy celeb” whose weenie was whacked by his wife Lorena. Bobbitt’s fame exploits were even more sordid than Buttafuco’s. Both “boys” can be found on Wikipedia.
To her credit, Lorena did not use her “celebrity” for fame or fortune. Wikipedia states she founded an organization to help prevent domestic violence.
Hi Linda– LOL; this post is a real blast from the past– even though some of the names blasting back at me are ones I’d rather forget! Good old Joey B– and didn’t Amy Fisher herself nab some sort of reality show?
Who’d have thought Lorena Bobbitt would be the ‘Class Act’ of this bunch– good to know she is doing, or at least trying to do, something worthwhile with her notoriety–
Keep em coming, Linda; always love your comments and voice on the blog– E
I like this topic, I keep thinking about it too. Anyone want to guess how many book contracts Tiger Wood mistresses will generate?
Yes– I will take a shot–
I say SIX SEX BOOK contracts (at least!) will emerge before Tiger-gate is done. A ‘dirty half-dozen’…
ON HOW MANY TIGER WOODS MISTRESS BOOK DEALS-
NOT SIX- EVEN IN AMERICA WE’VE GOT OUR LIMITS-
3 STRIKES AND THEY’LL BE OUT- THE FIRST THREE MISTRESSES TO
LAND AGENTS TAKE THE CAKE AND THAT’S IT, GAME OVER
I’ll go with that as an opening bid, but all the mistresses may not be out of the WoodsWorks yet.
May I nominate the shrub’s (Bush the lesser) scribe, Ari Fleischer? Recently heard he is Tiger’s new reputation restorationist and another of Ari’s clients is Mark McGwire! Seth Meyer had a good zinger on SNL’s news last night (paraphrasing): “It is being reported that Tiger Woods will be returning to golf soon. Also returning to golf soon: VIEWERS.” And as if their opening sketch hadn’t made enough mincemeat of Rep. Massa, Weekend Update invited in Jerry Seinfeld for a special edition of “Seth & Jerry’s ‘REALLY?’”
Yes, Lupins, by all means, let’s add Ari’s name to the mix. I had no idea that Bush, Tiger and McGwire had this in common. What a rogue’s gallery. And the PR flaks are definitely important Supporting Players in these sagas. At least Ari will be spinning less deadly lies now that he’s down in the dirt with Tiger & co. instead of trolling the Corridors of Power– Thanks as always for knowing the dirt on the dirt– cheers– Elizabeth
the man who ‘spun’ lies for bush deserves to be working for tiger & mcgwire now…
Hi Livvy–
Yes, I agree, there is some political/poetical justice in that…
So many to choose from (including blasts from the past for we 40 plussers (Trip and Buttafuco).
But in this case, I take the new over the old. Andrew Young! A married man! Doing what he did! Amazing. How did that conversation play out between he and his wife? Did ethics ever come up or was it just the John Edwards gravy train?
Hi Penny2:
Yes, I agree, Andrew Young is in a class by himself–
and now Rielle is saying that if his grand jury testimony is like his book, he’ll be charged with multiple counts of perjury–
I’ve also heard Young’s wife could not stop herself from confiding about all this to– her hairdresser!
Always good to hear from you–
Elizabeth
We’re getting pretty jaded here, folks – a presidential candidate with a “love child” bought and sold and bought again in a manner of speaking; a man possessed with his celebrity status who pleads with his fans to accept an aplogy for his sex addiction; enough politicians who are coming out of the closet or admitting extramarital affairs, deliberately or not that they need to put a revolving door on the thing; talk show hosts admitting they are either unfaithful, unwanted or untalented; a pope whose brother is implicated in unspeakably disgusting activities, and the list goes on and on.
The bar is pretty high – and on St. Patrick’s Day, that’s posing a challenge, indeed. So here’s my biased fantasy list:
1. Sarah Palin will be shown to have accepted “gifts” of house building in Wasilla from contractors while telling the public her husband and some friends built the place (while he was holding a full-time job in the oil fields and racing snow machines.)
2. Sarah Palin will be brought up on charges of tax evasion, and Al Capone will spin in his grave like the turbine in a power plant at the thought she’d join his ranks.
3. Cardiologists at 3 major hospitals will be brought up on insurance fraud charges, when it is discovered they billed the Federal Government for treating problems with Dick Cheney’s heart – an organ that has shown itself more difficult to locate than an Iraqi weapon of mass destruction.
And why do I fantasize about Sarah Palin’s political and celebrity demise? She represents all that is wrong in the political system to me – she defines the over-used and misunderstood term “disingenuous,” – her photograph should be in Wiki with no other explanation, except that a large portion of the population would then think the term was a compliment. She has set the cause of women’s equality back to the 12th Century BCE, when a man had several items of property believed to be of greater value. She has reinforced the stereotype that women are superficial, uneducatable objects. Her one redeeming quality may be that she makes people like Britney Spears, Linsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and the rest of that crowd seem like normal intelligent women. And yet, I counted 30-straight days that CNN had articles on the front page of their website about everything Sarah Palin – from her stupid quotes on every and anything that comes into her feeble mind, to the people she was seen eating with in New York.
But in all seriousness, the level to which celebrities have shown their human, or in some cases suprehuman failings – perhaps not surprisingly in light of the ever-increasing scrutiny of public eyes/webcams/blogs, etc., is exhausting our senses of outrage and disillusionment. It is almost necessary for someone to find out that a Supreme Court Justice is a mass murderering canibal to raise more than 5-minutes of attention at this point.
And we have the Blagojovich trial to look forward to this year, which if done right could out drama the O.J. trial.
Great to hear from you– Love the Sarah Palin fantasy and love the line:
“Dick Cheney’s heart – an organ that has shown itself more difficult to locate than an Iraqi weapon of mass destruction.”
Glad you brought up the Pope too, who may be facing more serious charges than the rest of this crew. So true that we’re a pretty jaded lot in this celebrified country and definitely on this celebrified blog. But I appreciate your far-ranging thoughts here and I hope the Sarah fantasy comes true.
Already true is your observation that it would take a Supreme Court Cannibal to rouse us from our disgraced-celebrity stupor to feel any real outrage. But meanwhile, we can pinpoint on the blog those most worthy of note in the anals of disgrace…
THANKS for sharing your family’s well-known (in certain circles!) wit and please do come again– My son will get a kick out of your Cheney line– it’s a classic!
Elizabeth