When I was a kid there was a word, a word to which my friends and I aspired; richandfamous. Richandfamous was what all of us wanted to be. Broken down into its individual parts; rich and famous, it seemed that one naturally led to the other. If you were rich you could become famous if you wanted. Even if you didn’t want to be famous being rich made you famous. If you were famous then of course, you were rich. If you were on TV or did anything that was well known with the exception of having committed a crime or being a victim you must be making some serious cash. So many people still believe this which is why Reality Television has no problem finding participants. If you can get popular enough you’ll get fans and fans will buy whatever you’re selling. You can write a book or have someone else write a book for you or about you and make some money. You can be an interview subject and get paid to answer questions or just become a celebrity and get paid to be photographed or for going to parties or appearing on game shows or fund raising dinners. These days we have tons of celebrities who are famous only for being famous.
Unfortunately, being rich because you’re famous is an illusion. Being famous is even a relative term. Being interested in art I think of a lot of the artists, illustrators and cartoonists I grew up admiring as being famous but they’re only known by their fans, like me. I read a lot of musician and artist biographies and I am shocked and depressed to learn that most of the artists and quite a few of the musicians that I would give my third nut to have a career like (yes, my third nut, the other two are busy), did not make what I would now consider a lot of money. Now I understand that maybe basing my whole life modeling people whose work I admired but never succeeded financially was not the best idea. Go figure.
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