By ALISH WILSON
It’s official.
Australian TV is now the place for fading celebrities to come for a career tune-up.
Mel B, Ronan Keating, Brian McFadden, Joel Madden, Seal, David Hasselhoff… All of these B/C/D grader international celebs have made the trip down under in an effort to bump themselves up a notch on the Super-star-dom alphabet.
Private Sydney columnist Andrew Hornery wrote about this phenomenon earlier this week, taking on the celebrities who have attempted a Down Under Career Make-Over. You can read his musings here.
But Andrew’s piece got me thinking – why here?
What is it about Australia that fills the eyes of not-quite-celebrities-anymore with the stars of years past? In a nut shell? We are to the world what Tasmania is to us: that quiet little place down below that’s so far off the radar, nobody who matters will ever know what you did there for a quick buck (sorry Tasmanians).
Also, we lose our sh*t over famous people. Lose. Our. Shit.
That has to be a good feeling when you’ve gone unrecognised at the supermarket for years. (And when I say ‘famous people’, obviously Aussie-only celebrities aren’t included.
I can’t really explain this phenomenon except to say that unless they have managed to ‘make-it’ overseas, no Australian is ever considered a ‘real’ celebrity when standing next to an international star, no matter how D-grade that star may be.)
So a lack of cash and/or a fragile ego pretty much guarantee we’ll be getting ourselves a new celebrity judge on Australia’s Still Got Some People Who Haven’t Won A Talent Contest Yet.
Top Comments
You've hit the nail on the head with this one. I touch on this in an article I wrote earlier this year about the reality singing competition: http://earlybirdcatchesthew...
We are not the only country to do it. Britain and Irelands next top model is judged by 2 Australians (Danni Minogue and Elle) and an american male model, and Keith Urban judged American Idol, Heidi Klum host project runway instead of an american model or designer. Dawn French was a bloody fantastic judge on superstar (hilarious), and although the spice girls were crap they do know a thing or two about survival in the pop industry so I think as long as the people they are choosing are qualified to pass on their life experience from a variety of different backgrounds than it is fine.