That was no pariah, that was a celebrity.Who says there are no second acts in American lives? Well, OK, F. Scott Fitzgerald Noun 1. F. Scott Fitzgerald - United States author whose novels characterized the Jazz Age in the United States (1896-1940) Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald did. But he didn't know about reality shows. In recent months, we've seen pop-star has-beens as diverse as Erik Estrada, Flava Flay flay to strip off the skin. , Tammy Faye Bakker Messner and Vanilla Ice re-emerge in the unblinking eye of roving minicams. Now there is Martha Stewart, fresh from a prison release that received more coverage than any since South Africa's Nelson Mandela ended 27 years of political persecution in 1989. She is set to star in not one but two television shows. One is to he a spruced-up revival of the daily homemaking home·mak·er n. One who manages a household, especially as one's main daily activity. home  mak show she had before turning herself in to serve five months behind bars for lying about a stock sale. The other is a customized version of NBC's "The Apprentice," hosted by Donald Trump, the billionaire developer who's made a career out of being "The Donald" as lucratively as Stewart has made one of being "Martha." All of which, in the wake of other recent celebrity comebacks-by-media, raises intriguing questions about how smoothly today's spin-industry can put a positive twist on criminal convictions and other setbacks that we used to call public disgrace. For example, Stewart looks saintly as Joan of Arc Joan of Arc, Fr. Jeanne D'Arc (zhän därk), 1412?–31, French saint and national heroine, called the Maid of Orléans; daughter of a farmer of Domrémy on the border of Champagne and Lorraine. in the wake of her fellow blonde ex-jailbird Lizzie Grubman, the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most world's answer to Paris Hilton. Dubbed a "Power Girl" on the cover of New York magazine, Grubman is best known for throwing what the entertainment press calls "fabulous parties" for celebrity clients such as Britney Spears, Gloria Estefan, Quincy Jones and new-school rappers with such colorful names as Jay-Z, Ja Rule and Wu-Tang Clan. She seemed to have thrown it all away in the summer of 2001 when she backed her Mercedes SUV into a crowd outside a Southampton, Long Island, nightclub in an ugly hissy-fit that injured 16 bystanders. She eventually served slightly more than half of a 60-day jail sentence before returning to freedom, beaming with contriteness con·trite adj. 1. Feeling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent. 2. Arising from or expressing contrition: contrite words. . Now her reality show, "PoweR GMs," is on MTV MTV in full Music Television U.S. cable television network, established in 1980 to present videos of musicians and singers performing new rock music. MTV won a wide following among rock-music fans worldwide and greatly affected the popular-music business. . It follows Grubman and four female protegees through the day-to-day chores of making famous people more famous. Hey, if anyone is a walking billboard for such skills, it is Grubman. In a world that seems to turn fame into its own reward regardless of how one became famous, no bad deed, once punished, need go unrewarded. In fact, one wonders, should Michael Jackson stop defending himself and look to a future of, say, playing himself on a cable TV network'? Could an O. J. Simpson Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson (born July 9, 1947) (also known by his nickname, The Juice) is a retired American football player who achieved stardom as a running back at the collegiate and professional levels, and was the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards Show have potential? Maybe I've been living too long in Washington, a place where felony convictions linked to political scandals only enhanced the abilities of Watergate conspirator conspirator n. a person or entity who enters into a plot with one or more other people or entities to commit illegal acts, legal acts with an illegal object, or using illegal methods, to the harm of others. G. Gordon Liddy George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) was the chief operative for White House Plumbers unit that existed during several years of Richard Nixon's Presidency. Along with E. (later released from prison by a merciful President Jimmy Carter) and Iran-Contra conspirator Ollie North (his conviction was later overturned on a technicality) to become national stars of conservative talk radio shows. I was not surprised with Armstrong Williams' new gig. Remember how the well-connected public relations entrepreneur and conservative commentator lost his syndicated newspaper column and national talk show outlets after USA Today revealed his $240,000 contract with the Department of Education to help promote the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind school reform program? Well, he's landed a contract to co-host a daily talk show. Spokesmen told reporters that Williams was hired to help increase ratings. Of course he was. In the business of marketing chatter, the famous name is what counts. It matters much less how the name became famous. No wonder Martha Stewart decided to serve her sentence even while continuing her appeal of her conviction. In this case, her humility was more than a legal or moral choice. It was a smart business decision. After overdosing on exotic excuses by celebrity wrongdoers, it was downright refreshing for many of us to see Stewart check into the slammer A worm that caused a billion dollars worth of damage on the Internet on January 25, 2003. Slammer infected computers all over the Internet by generating random IP addresses and causing the computer's buffer to overflow with its own instructions that replicate itself and start the process despite having enough wealth to keep up a big fight. Wall Street rewarded her decision by pushing her company's stock to three times the level that it was when she was convicted last March, even though experts say its fiscal outlook remains uncertain. There are second acts in American lives, after all. Americans believe in second chances for those who deserve them. Now Martha Stewart has hers. As for her how good her new TV shows will be, the jury is still out. Clarence Page is a syndicated columnist. |
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