With an estimated personal fortune of over 120million, Simon Cowell has achieved the sort of financial status previously reserved for Hollywood movie moguls and superstars. Compared to the mega rich Forbes list of billionaires, Cowell may still be regarded as the poor boy next door or at best "up and coming nouveau riche" but it is nonetheless an astounding achievement for someone who has no other discernible talent than a strong charisma and an ability to spot an opportunity and cash it in. Cowell leads a modern upsurge of the cult of the minor celebrity, a group which contains chat show hosts, chefs, models, and sports stars, and others who have discovered the ability to turn a little talent into a money-spinning machine.

Fifty years ago, you had to be a Hollywood star to make the big bucks in entertainment. Top TV stars and footballers, even legends like Charlton and Best, were not in the running for Forbes List fortunes. So what has changed? Why is it that certain people can persuade us to tune in and watch on high paying TV networks, and part with cash for books and videos when they can neither write nor sing and dance?

The answer is that they make it seem real and possible for the rest of us. By being ordinary and rich, they offer hope and encouragement to everyone watching, no matter where they live, that it really is possible to go from rags to riches in the click of a show host's fingers. Mass media and big business combined means mass sponsorship. The Internet has turned the entire globe into a marketplace with the ability to reward anyone who stands out or who offers something novel with mega-deal contracts. And when real talent comes along, as in the case of Susan Boyle, the machine goes crazy.

When people were powerless serfs, tilling the soil, the real heroes were those who fought for freedom and egalitarianism, the military commanders and the politicians. In an age when freedoms are taken for granted, our only concern is how rich we can become, and the Cowell cult of instant fame and fortune is the new Holy Grail. But nothing comes without a price. Not everyone is a Gordon Ramsay or a David Beckham. Even in the fields of successful cookery and brilliant footwork, Ramsay and Beckham are in the stratosphere. Their peers can only look up with respect. The truth is cult celebrities are not ordinary. Just like other heroes in the past, they possess some intangible magic, either in themselves or in the circumstances that surround them. A lucky break, hard work and commitment, the right connexions, are still just as important as they ever were.

But a word of warning. Though Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame is now a reality, fifteen minutes is not always going to be enough. With high ambition comes deep disappointment, and when hopes are dashed lives are left in tatters. The Internet, super sponsorship, and the new exciting world of reality TV talent spotting, may successfully distract people from their real problems for a while, but in the end "real life" must intrude on "reality".



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