How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less

STEP I Days 12: A "BRAND" NEW YOU As a star, it's important to be instantly recognizable, even when you're hiding in plain sight in a baseball cap and sunglasses. What is Gwyneth without her beautiful blond locks? J.Lo without her bodacious butt? Gwen Stefani without her steel midriff bared? Celebrities are like boxes of cerealpackaged and promoted to offer a consistent, bite-size message, so that everything from the clothes they wear to the color of their hair is a reflection of their particular trademark. The first order of business on your search for the spotlight is to start thinking of yourself as a product, a commodity, and a brand. Witness the golden arches of McDonald's. Every time you see the giant yellow M in the sky, you know you deserve a break today. You, my friend, will need to acquire your own set of golden arches, that certain je ne sais quois that will make people thinkeven subconsciouslyof you every time they see it. The trick is being true to yourselfand possibly coming up with a fabulous stage name (flirt with prestigious identifiable brand names like Kennedy or Rockefeller, or think about adding "Von" or "de" before your last name to give it an upper-crust spin). You also need to be original. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but the public can spot a cheap knockoff a mile away (Although for some reason boy-band amnesia seems to set in every five years; the success of 'N Sync was spawned from the Backstreet Boys, which in turn was coded from the DNA of New Kids on the Block, which really stemmed from New Edition, a total reproduction of the Jackson Five). Take it from us, the Fame Highway is littered with celebrity roadkill: starlets and also-rans who never elevated themselves from the Blond Clone Army to Hollywood Heaven. If you don't want to become a bloody mess, discarded like yesterday's trash, your brand must be strongand likable. In private you can be as quirky, odd, and contradictory as you want. But in the public eye, your brand should always come first. Whether it's the calling cards you hand out at a party, the type of drink you order at a bar, or the kind of car you drive and the esoteric monikers you name your kids (Demi Moore named her three daughters Rumer, Scout Larue, and Tallulah Belle, for heaven's sake!), you need to adopt a larger-than-life persona and live it to the hilt. Exhausting? Maybe. But Hugh Hefner didn't become Hef without his silken PJs and breast-implanted accessories. This chapter will help get you started by teaching you to establish your brand name. We will delineate the types of personas you can adopt (nothing like a little multiple-personality disorder amongst friends). Once you pick your MO, we'll show you how to use it to your advantage and keep up appearances, from creating a business card and letterhead to assembling your own press kit, honing your personal celebrity style, bulking up your social calendar to its desired A-list status, and asking for what you want without making apologies for it (it's called being high-maintenance, and nothing's wrong with that). Be warned, all of this may come with possible public humiliation, but that's to be expected. Renee Zellweger didn't have us at hello until she made at least a dozen films that flopped, including Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1994. THE BEGINNING: ACQUIRE THE FAME PERSONA THE NAKED TRUTH Karen I was Rollerblading down Second Avenue on a sunny Monday morning. At Forty-second Street I stopped at a red light. I didn't spot any oncoming cars, so I decided to go. The second I started to roll, a Volvo came fDe la Cruz, Melissa is the author of 'How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less', published 2003 under ISBN 9780345462947 and ISBN 0345462947.