How to be famous: get a great beach body, befriend the paparazzi - and make stuff up
Celebrity Big Brother runners-up and reality TV royalty Speidi share their secrets to getting - and staying - famous in the 21st Century…
They were last seen terrorising the residents of a prefab in Elstree, but reality TV royalty Spencer and Heidi Pratt (best known to fans and foes simply as Speidi) aren’t by any means done with the UK yet.
“Hopefully Channel 5 will make a Speidi series that will make entertainment for years to come.” Spencer told RadioTimes.com. “Let’s hope that all the people who saved us on Celebrity Big Brother tune into the Speidi special (18 Feb, 10pm, C5) and help the ratings be huge and we will be doing TV for as long as possible in England.”
After rising to fame in the godfather of structured reality series, The Hills, Speidi have now spent the best part of seven years in the public eye in America – and have now seemingly “cracked” the UK.
But why here?
“England makes it fun to be famous just to be famous, it’s like a big game… the only reason I continue wanting to be famous is because being famous in England with the British public has been the first time that money wasn’t the only reason I enjoyed being famous,” enthuses Spencer.
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And so seven years on, how do the co-authors of a book called How to Be Famous: Our Guide to Looking the Part, Playing the Press, and Becoming a Tabloid Fixture continue to get themselves talked about?
Simple: “Definitely having a great beach body, that’s a key for sure,” says Heidi.
“And becoming best friends with the paparazzi helps,” adds Spencer. “You know everyone who complains about the paparazzi are just lying… if it weren’t for paparazzi most people would not even be famous. The paparazzi take the photos; they get people in the magazines and on the websites that people read. So, becoming best friends with paparazzi I’d say is maybe the most important.”
And finally, says Spencer, "Always having an interesting story. Most lies are not interesting, it’s the real stuff that’s interesting. So, the goal is to have truthful content, but then if you don’t have anything entertaining enough you’re better off making stuff up, than telling boring truths.”
So as the epitome of 21st Century fame-for-the-sake-of-fame, do Speidi think that young people should aspire to be famous?
“Absolutely not,” answers Spencer. “You should aspire to be so talented that you become famous. Unfortunately, we were both not blessed with some super DNA that makes us the best swimmer, diver or… you know, freakin’ whatever nowadays it takes to be famous. The guy who can jump out of space with a parachute, those are people who deserve to be famous - the people that have done something historically, to be part of humankind. No, you should not aspire to be famous for being famous.”
Speidi: Scandal, Secrets & Surgery is on Monday 18 February at 10pm on Channel 5
