Beauty and the B..logger

A recent story about a Dakota Fanning selling perfume with sexually explicit ads, while Oscar nominated Gary Busey is selling cars got me thinking about brain damage and blogging.

As you might know, an ad with 17 year-old Dakota Fanning because..

Four readers complained about the magazine ad for Jacobs’ recently launched “Oh, Lola!” perfume, the Advertising Standards Authority said. The ad showed the 17-year-old star in a pale short dress, sitting with an oversized perfume bottle — which is shaped like a vase holding a giant red flower — between her legs.

I won’t comment on British morality (they were one of the last countries to relax their porn laws) or the perfume maker “scandalous” publicity tactics. Having an ad banned is often a better strategy than spending money to having it printed and displayed.

Meanwhile, Gary Busey, best known for having portrayed Buddy Holly in an Oscar-nominated performance, after having tried his luck on Trump Garry, you’re a piece of work / you’re fired show (Ellen, Oscars, Oscars2, Kimmel 1 2, Best of, Family Guy, Simpsons, 9/11, pyramids, nuts, soup, buseyisms, box, synergy, 150%, connected, rage, rape, letterman, politcally incorrect 1 2 3, interview, slurPEEs, Sheen, 2Sheen, moment, meatloaf, make up, threat, pay attention, cancer).

I’d rather not riff on Busey for too long, but he seems to be a rather decent guy. He made a career playing a crazy dude (just watch his work before his motorcycle accident) and now, when he does look a bit odd, people are afraid of him and few see beyond his “crazy” smokescreen. He obviously has a lot to say but he can hardly do so without his message getting lost and / or turned against him. It’s as if he’s using all his energy in a war of attrition with the rest of the world where everyone is trying to prove him crazy while he’s trying to hold on to his sanity. His grip is weakening and he’s not even crazy like Kinsky – at least, not yet. Here’s what wikipedia tells us:

On December 4, 1988, Busey was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in which he was not wearing a helmet. His skull was fractured, and doctors feared he suffered permanent brain damage. At the recommendation of Dr. Drew Pinsky, Busey was seen by psychiatrist Dr. Charles Sophy. Sophy suspected that Busey's brain injury has had a greater effect on him than realized. He described it as essentially weakening his mental "filters" and causing him to speak and act impulsively. Sophy recommended Busey take a medication called Depakote (valproic acid), to which Busey agreed.

Perhaps his best outlet would be either a blog or a video blog. A sponsor got him to do some “Buseyisms” (user garybuseyonbusiness). That was a commercial message, however. Wouldn’t it be awesome if he started his own blog, from the heart? I think that’s what he should do.

It is unclear to me whether in the late 90’s he went through some form of facial cancer only or he also got into a motorcycle accident, barely escaping alive, but he definitely is a success story.

A self-entitled “blogfather” in the Romanian blogosphere has also barely survived falling off a cliff. He is similar to Busey not only in the often incomprehensible message, but also in a certain facial asymmetry. Even Daryl Rowse, the famous blogger behind problogger.net was somehow involved in a motorcycle accident (not on Transalpina), though it’s unclear to me whether he was a victim or he simply took a photo of the accident and sold it to the insurance company. He is also known to have been a Baptist “alternative” minister in a “livingroom” church prior to becoming a blogging success. The point is, flirting with danger does not seem to impede on blogging; on the contrary, it helps.

Like it or not, blogging is all about self-promotion. You can be the best writer in the world but you’ll never get more than 100 hits a day unless you spin the publicity wheel. Celebrities have the upper hand, especially if they have something to say other than “look at me, I’m famous” – though that’s not a requirement. It’s much harder to become a celebrity as a blogger, than to become a famous blogger when you already are a celebrity. There isn’t a lot of money to be made blogging, but wouldn’t that be a more honest and fulfilling work than selling cars, as Gary is doing?

Sources / More info: star-dakota, Kia1, Kia2, Kia3