I had a bizzare conversation today. Apropos of some silliness about asterisks and stars someone said, "Everybody wants to be famous..." slightly disapprovingly - in much the same way that I disapprove of Fame Idol people who winge "I just want to be famous!"
Hm, I said, not quite everybody. I recalled in my mind a conversation earlier in the day about Chris Martin of Coldplay and how he really doesn't want to be famous, despite having just married Gwyneth Paltrow. But instead of Chris Martin, I mentioned Jonny Wilkinson.
"Who is he?" asked my interlocutor.
"He's a rugby player," I explained, with a hint of 'Duh!' in my voice.
"Is he famous?" I was asked. I explained that he is, yes, sort of, and quickly reeled off a week in the life of. Oh heck the Beeb has done it much better. I like the bit "at least Sir Steve was up there as well to help me through it", because last night I was shouting at the TV (I was quite drunk you know, there's far too much booze in this cottage) - go on Steve, have a word, tell him it eases off, tell him it's possible to live a normal life, tell him he doesn't have to be David Beckham.
Still, I wonder about people who really don't have a clue what's in the news outside of the big serious stories. Admittedly, we all have areas that don't interest us, but when something's news, it's news. Or maybe I'm just a news junkie.
Okay, I'll admit it. I am a bit obsessed by Jonny. But only slightly, and in a very detached "isn't it interesting when you can watch someone's life change before your eyes?" way.
(For those of you outside England and Australia, Jonny Wilkinson is the England fly-half who, twenty seconds from the end of extra time in the World Cup Final when Australia nd England were drawing 17-17, dropped the goal that won the World Cup. If you had tried to write it as fiction you couldn't have bettered it - especially as Australia had equalised in the dying seconds of full time. )
I'm not sure I have actually mentioned on this blog that England won the Rugby World Cup
