Steve Nolan: Trashy TV and the price of fame

They might be mindless programmes - but, as I said to a Twitter contact the other day, concentrating is for the office not the sofa, I don’t want to watch anything too complex during my time.

I tend to share my enjoyment of these programmes with my friends and colleagues on Twitter, gossiping about the latest TOWIE episode or who performed badly on this week’s live shows.

But it’s not really so much about what happens in Essex or the performance of the X Factor finalists these days is it? For the ‘stars’ themselves it seems to be less about any sort of talent or entertaining the masses and more to do with riches, glory and, above all, fame.

The X Factor aired footage this week of young wannabe Frankie Cocozza showing off a tabloid front page depicting him leaving a nightclub with a bevy of girls with some glee. He can’t particularly sing well and some of his performances have been panned by public and judges alike - but that doesn’t seem to bother him when he’s making headlines.

Similarly, TOWIE lothario Mark Wright is rumoured to want to leave the show to move on to ‘bigger things’. Presumably his fame has outgrown the show that launched his ‘career’ - and fame is the be all and end all isn’t it?

But who would really want to be famous?

You only have to open a newspaper or one of the countless gossip rags on sale these days to see which celebrity is the latest to have a meltdown.

Celebrity reporting is bitchy and cut-throat and it must be pretty hard to get your head around having to go out looking immaculate all the time or having your (not-so) private life constantly in the spotlight.

A million miles from being a celebrity myself, I was recognised in my local newsagents once after my picture was splashed across one of our papers for a feature. Far from looking my best, I was hungover (it was a Saturday), unkempt, ungroomed and wearing a scruffy hoody - I was mortified. What must it be like for these clebs to be plastered all over the papers without make-up or having put on a bit of weight?

Admitedly, the fact that these people are invariably a lot wealthier than me and have people running around after them left, right and centre must be a fair compensation for the pressures of fame, but some fail to handle it all the same.

No wonder so many of them hit the self-destruct button.

Talking of X Factor, two of top judge Gary Barlow’s Take That bandmates have reportedly been in rehab in recent years, Robbie Williams’ demons have been well documented over the years.

And only yesterday we hear reports from tragic Amy Winehouse’s inquest. Sure, aside from fame, she had an illness - she was an addict and only the stone hearted can fail to have at least a degree of sympathy for her. Addiction is a disease that I make no claims to knowing anything about, but I can’t help but feel that her problems can only have been exercabated by being played out in a such a public way - our press and public love a tragic tale far more than say a story praising the enormous talent of someone like Miss Winehouse after all.

So, what price fame as they say? I’d rather be able to walk the streets without being recognised or fear of being ‘papped’ thanks.