Sometimes there are moments when you shake your head and wonder what in the heck this world is coming to.
This morning, for me, that moment didn’t come as the result of reading about some atrocity in a far off land. No, it arrived as I clicked through the Photos of the Week on the People Magazine site. It’s normally a fun little romp but a picture of Khloe Kardashian holding a tray of cupcakes caused the synapses in my brain to make a sound like bacon frying in a pan.
The Kardashians are the daughters and ex-wife of Robert Kardashian who was one of OJ Simpson’s defence lawyers during that farce of a murder trial. Mama K has been married to Olympian Bruce Jenner for nearly 20 years. Khloe is one of the daughters who is easily confused with Kim and Kourtney because they look similar and have absolutely no distinguishing accomplishments. Ambitious Mama K convinced the E! Network that her beautiful family had the stuff for a reality show and that’s how we came to be assaulted, daily, by their faces and names.
The show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, is mildly successful program but the machine that keeps the young women in the public eye, orchestrated by their Mom, is a runaway hit. Every move these women make is chronicled. Kim, for example, was married for five minutes a few years ago and sued over a sex tape with a previous boyfriend, accepting a five-million dollar settlement for its release. I mean, come on, she had already posed nude for Playboy. The tape was like an animated version of the photo spread, so what was the point of suppressing it? Not to mention, the price was right.
There is literally nothing these women won’t do for fame. Khloe recently married an NFL player after knowing him for one month. Kourtney is on again, off again with her baby-daddy and just days ago she gave birth to a much-photographed boy.
So why do I care about any of this? Well, I don’t, except in a scientist-looking-into-a-petri-dish kind of a way. The womens’ faces are plastered in every publication and it can’t help but lead one to wonder who the heck they are. Now you know. There isn’t a shred of substance to their noteriety. Mrs. K is a brilliant marketer and has made millionaires out of three women who have nothing but beauty and a total lack of shame going for them. They are truly famous for nothing and that brings me back to those cupcakes. I couldn’t help but think about Khloe’s daytimer. Tuesday: premiere of the movie Nine. Wednesday: photo shoot at Mom’s for Fame-Seeker’s Magazine. Thursday: opening of cupcake shop. It’s ridiculous and probably the most successful manufactured bit of fame Hollywood has churned out in some time. Had the balloon boy’s father’s plan not failed, I somehow think that runaway aircraft would have touched down to pick up a Kardashian girl along the way.