[James]

by Dominic Mohan

SADA, Penny, Gos, Alex, Bubble, Tim, Dean, Anna, Mel - the wannabes who became neverweres. Just some of the Big Brother rejects who dreamed of fame and fortune but whose lives were blighted by reality TV.
Casualties in a bloody ratings war who believed taking part in a televisual experiment would fill the vacuum in their souls and improve their existence. Instead, their Big Brother experience became a life sentence, leaving them in the lonely no-man's-land - or rather no-mark's-land that is microfame.

Their plight must be a warning to the 12 desperados hungry for national recognition and about to sacrifice their everyday lives for a shot at stardom in Big Brother Five, which begins on Friday. The reality is the dozen lambs to the slaughter will be lucky to blag a few free film premiere tickets and a role as Buttons in a grim seaside panto. And that's if they win the thing.

There are presently 12 people in this country - could even be one of your neighbours - who know they will be in millions of our front rooms come the weekend.
Drugged by the prospect of celebrity they will not have properly considered the long- term consequences of this decision. The majority of the show's previous contestants, in Britain and around the world, later admit that agreeing to take part was a misjudgment which ruined their lives.

Few have managed to hold down stable relationships or gain proper employment after their brushes with Z-list fame and many are financially worse off than when they went in. Nichola Holt from Series One is now a hardcore porn model. Plonker Tim Culley from Series Three had to emigrate to escape the ridicule. Bubble is still poking his tongue out at the London Marathon. A new generation of fame zombies has been spawned
A reality TVs living dead stuck in a wasteland where they are laughed at as star-chasing losers and have difficulty living normal lives because of that brief notoriety. It?s a symptom of our increasing instant gratification culture where we are content to be entertained members of the public prepared to make fools of themselves on national television.

But we rarely have any interest in buying into them once they're out and wearing sunglasses tumbling about at the opening of a nightclub toilet with their own bouncer in tow. The irony is that perhaps the most successful Big Brother contestant of all time is also its most vilified and least intelligent and that is saying something. Jade Goody didn't even win the show but has trousered a mint since. But the four winners have put the tit into non-entity and achieved zilch. Craig Phillips was last seen tied up in a cupboard on Bo Selecta! Brian Dowling as an audience member on Strictly Come Dancing. Kate Lawler showing off her nethers in lads? mags (see Page 3!) and Cameron Stout missing, presumed dead. Andy Warhol famously said that: "In the future everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes. Times have changed. It's now 15 seconds.

My advice to the Big Brother Five contestants - don't do it. Whatever they're searching for will not be found inside four walls and under the scrutiny of CCTV for twelve weeks. Evict yourselves from Big Brother now, before it's too late,

From today's Sun.