Andy Warhol was just a few decades off when he said everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. In the age of youtube and Twitter, we are now witnessing that of which he prophesied… sort of. More precisely, we are witnessing desperate souls trying ever so hard to achieve that elusive “15 minutes” through a combination of social networking sites, Blackberries, and shameless audacity.
Meghan McCain takes a page from the Paris Hilton play book.
Paris Hilton, of course, is the poster child for being famous for no other reason than having a famous name and oodles and oodles of mailbox money. But even with those huge advantages in her corner, she still needed a little extra “oomph” to catapult her to her current status as reigning Paparazzi Diva: she needed a scandal. So like any enterprising young woman with ambition and some appreciable physical assets, she made a sex tape that just happened to get “leaked” onto the internet. A few feigned moments of embarrassment and a couple of lawsuit threats later, and viola! “Fifteen minutes” that has waaaay over-stretched its shelf life.
Which brings me to Meghan McCain. Young women like Megan McCain owe Paris Hilton a bit of gratitude. Hilton, after all, pioneered the method of achieving some measure of fame through use of the internet. Up until recently, Meghan had primarily exploited her blog and Twitter to achieve her modest status as a young Republican pundit. For example, in August of 2008, after her father and presidential candidate, John McCain, had just named Sarah Palin as his running mate, she posted this:
“Yesterday was incredible. Again I got to witness history in the making, from a front row seat. Starting out the day with Dad’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his nominee for Vice President is a moment on stage I will never forget. She and her family are so down to earth and so much fun. I could not be any luckier to have these wonderful people join us on the road.”
But while she may have gushed over witnessing this historic moment and her admiration for the Palin family in the heat of the moment, the ordinarily critical and outspoken McCain has since been mostly silent about Palin, instead taking aim at Bush-era Republicans like Karl Rove. Shortly after joining Twitter, she posted this:
(Twitter’s) allowed me to share the less serious aspects and humorously uncensored moments of my life. But there’s a downside: I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God knows how many other political pundits. We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people.”
That little “tweet” led to numerous articles and soon Meghan McCain had developed a feisty reputation as a repudiator of many in her own political party. Now having Twitter in her arsenal, and a willingness to publicly disparage a much-maligned Republican like Karl Rove, McCain got a new taste for just how useful the internet can be in garnering widespread attention. Soon she was dusting it up with conservative darlings Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter, garnering even more favor with the mainstream press.
But alas, “fame is a fickle food,” and rather than finding herself to be a political commentator to be taken seriously, Meghan seemed to be more of a “fly in the ointment,” useful to the media on a slow news day when she had something provocative to say about a fellow Republican. So what does a self-respecting, ambitious young lady do who wants to be thought of as more than just “provocative” in political circles? Why, she posts a provocative picture of herself on the internet, of course!
Meghan boasts over 60,000 followers on Twitter, so naturally given the odds, there would be a few who would respond negatively to the photo… and they did. Some called her a “slut,” to which she feigned great indignation and posted this:
“When I am alone in my apartment, I wear tank tops and sweat pants, I had no idea this makes me a ’slut’, can’t even tell you how hurt I am. This is why I have been considering deleting my Twitter account, what once was fun now just seems like a vessel for harassment.”
She then later posted this about-face:
“I do want to apologise to anyone that was offended by my Twitpic. I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 (sic) those that are offended.”
Uh, yeah
Personally, I find it not so much coincidental as ironic that she would pose in said picture holding up an Andy Warhol book. Is this Meghan’s not-so-subtle way of telegraphing to us the exact purpose of posting the picture? Time will tell.
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