So many people are interested in 'reality television', and so many people long to be famous despite their lack of talent, I think the two could be combined (and actual musicians, actors, etc. spared a lot of papparzi-grief) by a lottery that confers fame, instead of riches, on its winner.

A certain amount of money would also be involved, of course. The drawing would be held annually; whoever won would get:

- Five million dollars that they _must spend within the year_. (They can, of course, spend it on gold bullion and a safe deposit vault, but those kinds of people are unlikely to enter this lottery.) Any money they don't spend goes to charity.

- A camera crew to follow them around, interview their friends and family, and shoot footage of them going about their suddenly not-very-ordinary lives.

- A TV show about their life, culled from the footage the camera crew gets.

- Fansites.

- Their own clothing line, to be designed either by them, or if they prefer, by an accomplished fashion designer with their input and inspiration from their wardrobe.

- Appearances on several major talkshows.

- A CD with them as lead singer. They can do covers, get a ghostwriter, or write their own.

At the end of the year, most of it goes away, although if the ex-celebs can make money off the CD more power to them, and they can of course keep whatever they bought with the five million.
-- gisho, Aug 05 2005

(?) Brewster's Millions http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/
about Brewster's Millions [goober, Aug 06 2005]

Another way to pollute our lives with more celebrity trash? Nooooo!
-- froglet, Aug 05 2005


Sounds no less logical than the current system for selecting celebrities. I think that it should be free and entry should be compulsory for everyone over eighteen.
-- wagster, Aug 05 2005


[wagster], I'm reluctant to suggest universal entry that because a lot of people would make very poor celebrities - and the idea isn't to hurt the winner. If I had a camera crew following me around, I'd probably go postal, and wind up keeping my celebrity as "The Celebrity Lotto Rampaging Axeman!" The idea is that people who *like* playing to an audience *could*.
-- gisho, Aug 05 2005


This would cheapen the honor of being a celebrity!

Next thing you know you'd have a bunch of slack jaw, know nothing know-it-alls that couldn't empty urine out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the bottom of the heel pontificating about politics, social and technical issues and managing to be wrong about 99% of the time!

Oh wait...

Bun. +
-- doctorremulac3, Aug 06 2005


But I want celebrities that don't care about fame.
-- wagster, Aug 06 2005


I need to anno again, but seriously this time. This really is a great idea. It's the "queen for a day" concept cranked way up.

I think it would find real appeal in this era where the people are becoming increasingly aware of what dumb-asses many intellectualoid celebs really are. It would be a way of saying: "We the people make the celebs. You stars just stand there on the red carpet looking pretty and acting stupid." You'd get all the glitz and glam and voyeurism you want from "real celebs" complete with the spectacle of spectacular rise to fame and corresponding, inevitable meteoric downfall.

Any hollywood producers out there reading this would be wise to give the green light to this idea. (Assuming you know how to read)

Gisho, if somebody really does this, get yourself a good attorney. You've got common law copyrights to this idea if you really were the first to publish it.
-- doctorremulac3, Aug 06 2005


What I would like about this is if nobody knew the person had to spend the $5 million in a year. It would be like Brewster's Millions (see link) where Richard Pryor had to spend $30 million in 30 days to inherit $300 million, but he's not allowed to tell anyone about it. If a reasonable person was put in this situation in a reality show and made to look like an idiot on camera, it'd be much more entertaining than some of the other drivel on t.v.
-- goober, Aug 06 2005


[goober], that'd go down the drain after the first year; it would be too hard to hide.
-- gisho, Aug 07 2005


Yeah, but you woulda thought they wouldn't have been able to do that Joe Millionaire crap again either.
-- goober, Aug 07 2005


You couldn't pay me enough to be famous.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 07 2005



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