Читать книгу Grumpy Old Men: New Year, Same Old Crap - David Quantick - Страница 10

The best example that there be of celebrity culture in action. Millions of years ago there were no famous wives of footballers. There were certainly no well-known girlfriends. History books may record the goal-scoring performance of H.K. Whittle (Woolwich Arsenal, 1931–1936) but of Mrs H.K. Whittle we know nothing. And the notion that Mrs H.K. Whittle would be photographed arriving at Hendon Aerodrome with 45 trunks full of Chanel dresses would have been considered absurd. Not to mention the idea that Mrs H.K. Whittle would be given her own show on the wireless, in which she and some other wives, including Mrs John Hemsley, Mrs G. Brill (Plymouth Argyle) and Mrs A.L.B. Cottersley would be placed in charge of two rival wool shops, the one to be named Hemsley Brill and Cottersley, the other to be named Quality Woollen Products of Neasden, with the aim being to discern which of the two teams were best, would be most common.

And yet such is life nowadays. Merely marrying or even having it off or sometimes just kissing a footballer is enough to make you famous nowadays, as though celebrity could be passed on through DNA (if that was the case, there would be an awful lot of pole-dancers and barmaids who’d become celebrities out there).

There should be an exam for becoming famous. Although, thinking about it, it probably ought not to be a very difficult exam.