Boyle Point: The Arc of Celebrity

Posted: June 1st, 2009 | Filed under: Cinema, Culture, Ruminations, Sports | No Comments »

How long ago was it that we first heard of TV/ singing phenom Susan Boyle?

Fifteen minutes? Twenty at most.

The video of her initial appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent” had over 200 million hits on the internet.

Her popularity was multifaceted. She could — and still can — really sing. Great Broadway voice. Big. Impressive. Affecting.

And she was Everywoman. Ordinary looks. Ordinary clothes. A shade zaftig. Hard scrabble upbringing. Those play big most everywhere, especially in the British Isles where proletarian has always been a popular character trait.

Even Simon Whatisname was smitten. (Unless, of course, that was show biz. He does own that TV franchise where she was a contestant.)

Then she went Madonna. Sort of. Did kind of a makeover without the calculation and acmen.

Star ascends. Star descends.

I remember thinking when she first blasted into our conciousness how she was the perfect metaphor for our instantaneous cybergalactic age. One day she’s nobody. Next day her name is on the lips of everybody in every Starbucks  — even the one in Sevilla across the street from Europe’s oldest gothic cathedral.

Now I believe her career arc has become the new celebrity paradigm. She lost that talent show and her incredible popularity, because, well, because, hey, Susan Boyle was sooooooooooo an hour ago. And we tired of her fame, fleeting as it seems to have been. She lost to a group of dancers named, uh, what is their name, uh, Diversity, that’s right.

So Susan Boyle’s career arc lasted, okay more than twenty minutes, but not much more than a month.

Welcome to the age of what have you got new for me this very minute?

And, so, henceforth, I shall refer to that point when a new fad, phase, trend, celeb crests in celebrity and commences its rapid plummet as the Boyle Point.

Look for her next week on VH1′s latest “Where Are They Now?” special. That old footage should be really neat to see.

– c d k

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