Nowadays it seems that in order to qualify for the status of celebrity you have to have less talent than ever before and simply having a haircut that makes you look like you’ve jammed your fingers in an electric point, is enough to command the screams of teenage girls.
'Fame' is so transitory that if anyone reading this can instantly name the winner of the X Factor from 2007 - who was described as the next big thing - then you have a better memory than I. If Jedward are still part of anyone's thoughts in two years time then I will not eat my hat but shall place it somewhere on that person where the sun does not, has not and will never shine.
Celebrities that our ancestors would have been aware of, actually had to have something that is lacking in today’s individuals...talent.
Elizabeth Fry – a prison and social reformer who found the ‘Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners’. She also started a school for the children who were imprisoned with their mothers. Her image can still be seen today on the £5 note.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel – Made famous and remembered for: The Great Western Railway, several famous steamships, numerous bridges; all of which helped modernise public transport and modern day engineering.
Lord Shaftsbury – Politician and Philanthropist to whom there is a memorial in Piccadilly Circus, London which was built in 1893.
David Livingstone – I presume
Mary Kingsley – Travelled to Africa and learned how to live in the Jungle. After meeting the Fang tribe, she climbed the 13,760 feet Mount Cameroon by a route unconquered by any other European and returned to England a celebrity. After writing 2 books about her journey, she became a nurse in the Boer War.
Florence Nightingale – Became a nurse despite her rich parent’s misgivings. Based at Barrack Hospital at Scutari during the Crimean War she helped to ensure that thousands of wounded men received the treatment they needed.
Alexander Graham Bell – Inventor of the telephone, mainly so that we can all vote in or out, our favourite celebrities in Britain’s Got Surprisingly Little Talent.
Now, if we look at some of the names that have graced our lives more than any other in recent times and why, we have:
Susan Boyle – She can sing but as far as I can tell she’s most famous for not being graced with the pretty stick.
Lily Allen – Too many people have told her that she can sing and as such she sings about every dull part of her life.
Katie Price – Famous for...er...um...nope, can’t put my finger on it.
Cheryl Cole – She can sing (through a computer) and beats up toilet attendants.
Peter Andre – Can’t sing and has spent the best part of the last two decades proving the point.
Are today’s famous faces worthy of our unfaltering adulation? YEW DECIDE!
Rob Denholm
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