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Looking for fame in all the wrong places

Oakland Tribune, Aug 25, 2006 by Column by Candace Murphy

SO I'VE BEEN following this John Mark Karr case.

Under a rock? Then let me summarize: John Mark Karr, conforming to the modus operandi of all accused killers by using all three of his given names, has been arrested for an alleged role in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. If the name JonBenet Ramsey -- technically two names though it sounds like three -- rings no bells in your brain, then please recalibrate your pop culture meter and come back at a later time.

Anyway, so I'm reading all these John Mark Karr stories. And the thing that keeps coming up over and over is how maybe the guy didn't do it. Maybe the guy filed a false confession. Maybe -- and here's the thing that really catches my eye -- maybe the guy just wants his 15 minutes of fame.

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Quite frankly, I'm not here to rush to judgment on John Mark Karr. But I am here to rush to judgment on this 15 minutes of fame business. Are "Survivor" and "Big Brother 7" and "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" so booked that all the regular routes to 15 minutes of fame are gridlocked? Did the canceling of "Average Joe" and "Temptation Island"

compound the problem and thwart all hope of the average human gaining any celebrity whatsoever? Is it that important to be famous?

Apparently so.

This whole 15 minutes business -- 900 seconds for those already weary of reading "15 minutes" -- started innocently enough when Andy Warhol mused aloud on the concept of celebrity back in 1968. I was only a 1-year-old at the time, but due to the 15 minutes of fame that the phrase itself got, it stuck around long enough for me to learn about it later.

"In the future," Warhol said, "everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

I'm told that later, Warhol tried to tweak the phrase. Bored by being asked about it constantly, he evidently offered up "In the future 15 people will be famous" and "In 15 minutes everybody will be famous." But the original phrase stuck, as did its essence: That the media can make anyone famous.

Now, this is just an aside, but I wonder what was so magic about 15. Maybe I'd know why if I were a Warhol expert. I mean, I know he was born Andrew Warhola, but I don't know his middle name. So that either means he's not a serial killer, or I'm just not a Warhol/ Warhola expert, and I'm betting on the non-murderous latter.

At any rate, it's 15. Not 14. Not 16. Not a quarter-of-an-hour. Not the previously mentioned 900 seconds. It's just plain 15.

It makes you wonder why, because even back then, no news program aired for 15 minutes uninterrupted unless it was "The MacNeil/ Lehrer Report" on PBS, and even that didn't start broadcasting until 1983.

So unless Warhol meant the stopwatch of fame was ticking before and after commercial breaks, I'm left to believe that he just settled on 15 because it sounded good.

It does, too. That's why the phrase has had so much longevity and why 15 minutes of everything are everywhere even to this day.

Like there's this Web site called RateItAll.com that has a whole section where users rate the 15 minutes of fame of celebrities. Topping the list right now is "Jeopardy" winner Ken Jennings. The runner-up is Valerie Plame, that CIA operative who was outed by newspaper columnist Robert Novak. Sad to say, I had to Google Plame to find out who she was. Even though she was born in Anchorage, Alaska, (God bless Wikipedia -- who knew?) like me.

Interestingly, the last person with a rating on the list is Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River Killer, but my theory is that had the keepers of the site used his middle name -- Leon -- he might have scored higher.

The 15 minutes is also all over music. Nik Kershaw has a song called "15 Minutes," and Karl Bartos has a song called "15 Minutes of Fame." There's also Draw Tippy's "15 Minutes of Lame," and Fast Time's "15 Minutes of Shame," too. And daring to tread the not- quite-15 line is the band Sugar Ray which named its 1999 album "14:59" somewhat boldly since their clock should have had much more time elapsed. If not entirely gone to zero altogether.

Anyhow, fast-forward and reset your clock to today, and we have people willing to literally kill, or say they did, for those ridiculous 15 minutes. To be popular. To be famous. To be remembered.

It's enough to wish more people paid heed to Marcus Aurelius who figured it all out sometime before he died in the year 180 and said, "And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity."

Here's to giving that phrase its 15 minutes.

Contact Bay Area Living writer Candace Susan Murphy at

cmurphy@angnewspapers.com or (925) 416-4814.

Looking for fame in all the wrong places

Oakland Tribune, Aug 25, 2006 by Column by Candace Murphy

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