Rebecca Black. Octomom. The White House Party Crashers. What do these people have in common? They became famous overnight, and then disappeared off of the Hollywood radar.
Rebecca Black gained media attention when she released her single “Friday” in 2011.
The accompanying music video went viral on YouTube, as well as other social media sites. The music video reached over 167 million views on Black’s YouTube channel.
“I was surprised that it got so many views,” junior Christine Fares said, “but then again there was at least a week when everyone was watching it.”
Rebecca Black’s mother, Georgina Kelly, paid a studio four thousand dollars to have the single and music video made and put out as a vanity release. Many music critics have dubbed “Friday” the “worst song ever.” In recent months, Black has appeared at many award shows including the Grammy’s, the Teen Choice Awards and MTV’s Video Music Awards. Black also made a cameo in Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)” music video.
“When the song “Friday” came out, I thought that it was not very original or well thought out,” senior Mahtab Sobhani said.
Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed a White House state dinner on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. The couple, who were trying to get their own reality show entitled ‘Real Housewives of DC’, became overnight sensations. They showed up half-way through dinner and mingled their way into the party. The couple took pictures with many politicians, including vice president Joe Biden and chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. The secret service was baffled at how easily two strangers, who were not on the guest list, could sneak into a White House dinner and take photos with multiple politicians. However, it has been proved that the couple was no danger to President Barack Obama or other guests because they had gone through the same security screenings as all other guests.
“I was very surprised to find out that two people could enter into the White House at an important presidential event,” junior Tory Gary said. “They were able to pass through several lines of security and secret service undetected.”
This event enraged many citizens because it showed that people could have such easy access to the President of the United States.
“In this case it was very unsettling,” Gary said. “If two people could have such easy access to the president, what does that say about our security and defense structure in the US.”
Another fame-hungry character emerged in 2009. Nadya Suleman, more commonly known as “Octomom,” gave birth to ocuplets after receiving fertility treatment. Suleman now has a total of 14 children, all born through In Vitro Fertilization and three of them are said to have disabilities. In the past Suleman has referred to her children as “disgusting” and “animals.”
“I find it disgusting that a woman like this is allowed to keep her children,” senior Michael Papendick said. “It really concerns me that child protective services isn’t doing anything about it.”
As a single mother, she lives on state benefits, because she is unable to support her 14 children. Suleman re-emerges into the public eye every couple of months. It seems as though she does a controversial interview almost every single time she starts to fade into the shadows of Hollywood.
However, the public seems to enjoy watching people emerge into overnight success and disappear just as fast, if not faster.
“I think everyone is entitled to getting their 15 minutes of fame, but only for the right reason,” Gary said.
