For the most part, I don't spend much time worrying about what happened to the folks who have appeared on reality shows. Sure I don't mind seeing them on a talk show or the occasional "where are they now" feature, but for the most part their 15 minutes are up.. hopefully they are back to their "normal" life.. and for me... I am usually onto the latest crew. Well that is not always the case...
I have blogged about TheFishBowl.com a few times. This is the website where ex-reality "stars" gather and talk about their lives, talk about the latest reality shows, and bicker among each other (like the latest additions from BB5). I am a bit curious about the site name... usually "living in a fishbowl" is considered a negative thing... the inference being that one's life is constantly and uncontrollably watched and scrutinized by others. All these folks did it once when they chose to be on reality television and they are doing it again via their participation in the website (where they call each other "fish" no less). I dare say that most of them probably could have returned to their "normal" lives and returned to some degree of privacy. But I guess the point is that they don't want that...
Is there still that much of a demand from the public for information about them? Having tasted a snippet of pseudo-celebritydom have they become so addicted to it that they can't go back to a private life? Having gone into the shows as future lawyers, engineers, etc... is life as an ex-reality "star" easier or more fulfilling? Are they actually making a living? Is there just some group-think mentality when you get a bunch of people together who have gone through a similar experience?
I am sure the motives vary from person to person. I mean it seems like a fun idea, but it is hard to muster up a lot of respect when one recent articles was subtitled: "promoting calendars by drinking, tanning and schmoozing!" Ah, life in L.A. (where it seems most of them now call home)? Here is a taste of some other articles:
L.A. Traffic Another Kind of Reality!
Getting Hooked on Skin Rejuvenation
Playing "The Price is Right Live" in Atlantic City
Shooting a Magazine Cover
Emmy Events with Ex-boyfriend Jason - Part I
"Wife Swap" My New Favorite Pastime!
Turning 25 Exciting and Amazing!
Help Me Pick My Hollywood Head-Shot!
Travel Weekend Turns into Travel Month!
One of my "favorite" articles was one entitled "Using the Baja Fresh Card to the Limit!" - in this one an ex-MTV Real Worlder was given a Baja Fresh pass as a thank you for being part of a charity dodgeball tournament (yes, you read right "charity dodgeball") for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (btw, the author couldn't even spell Glaser correctly). She quotes that the card "allowed me and 5 friends to eat a free meal, with drinks included, once a day, for a year."
So what did she do? Went to Baja Fresh EVERY day - with a group of 5 always in tow and tried to max out $$ on menu items -- the "best" they did was a 1-day tally of $74.82 worth of food. She proudly boasted that she "saved" $18,000 over the year. She ended the post " I guess no one believed that people who were on television and did charity work would actually bring 6 people for free meals every day. Well, we proved them wrong, didn't we?"
Nice "charity" work huh? I think any iota of goodwill was pretty much wiped out. Why not take a few meals over to a homeless shelter? Or how much would the Glaser Foundation have been thrilled with an $18k donation (or for companies like Baja Fresh to sponsor again, which they apparently did not ... hmmm, I wonder why)? Finally... I go to Baja Fresh myself...and like it... but how the heck can you eat it every day?
Now this was somewhat of an atypical entry -- not all the "fishes" come across as self-centered, "what's in it for me," attention-hungry $*%#$s, but reality television fans... I think we have created some monsters... or some huge psychiatrist bills down the road!
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