FAME BY ASSOCIATION

So you may or may not have heard the big news being reported by every bottom-feeder tabloid and credible news source: Suits star Meghan Markle is Prince Harry's new girlfriend. And you know what that means. Poor Ms. Markle is about to be thrust into the bottomless depths of public scrutiny to be picked apart like bread in a koi pond.

Of course, being a star of a popular TV show, Ms. Markle isn't exactly a novice to life in the limelight and public interest but I would venture a guess that her stock is about to skyrocket. And if her recent comments that she's "the luckiest girl in the world" are any indication, I think she knows it too.

Isn't that a curious thing? How much our perceived worth is influenced by the people we associate with. Or by the people who choose to associate with us.  How being romantically, or however otherwise, linked to someone perceived to be of greater interest than oneself elicits new curiosity. I mean, it's not like anything about you has changed. You're still the same person you've always been. What is it that generates that new interest? It's almost as if the more famous or influential party has imparted some secret which we all wish to know and to which the lesser influential party is now privy.

We've seen it time and time again with aspiring celebrities or celebrities of a lesser stature being able to leverage their new social or romantic connections and parlay newfound fame or amplified interest into viable career opportunities. I'm certainly not insinuating that that is the case for Ms. Markle but it certainly would be naive to deny how her romantic involvement with Mr...Harry will influence the public's interest in and perception of her.

On the other hand, there are those hangers-on who you know without a shadow of a doubt wouldn't even look twice at their source of second-hand fame had things been under normal circumstances. And those who will do anything to be seen or associated with someone of importance just so they can bask in the glow of Instagram adoration. But you can't blame them. People don't make themselves famous. Public interest makes them 'famous'. And that means it's really YOUR fault. Yours and Kanye's.

Bisous,

Alicia