As Eliot Spitzer heads off into the obscurity of the politically damned, we are reminded of Andy Warhol’s prescient quotation on celebrity, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
“In the future,” he said in 1968, “everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
The “vision” word gets bandied about rather carelessly these days, but consider this: Warhol made the remark long before the advent of 24-hour show-biz channels, YouTube, MySpace and the Internet.
His thought predated “People” magazine by five years, the birth of FaceBook founder Mark Zuckerberg by more than a quarter century.
Longer still before Brittany would go commando.
No irony, then, that more Americans know Warhol’s quote than his significant contribution to American pop art and, to a lesser extent, the avant-garde film movement.
Warhol tired of being continually asked about the remark and changed it variously to “In the future, 15 people will be famous” or “In 15 minutes everybody will be famous.”
Its latest incarnation pokes fun at the blogosphere: “In the future, everybody will be famous to 15 people.”
We thank you all.
