# Whose success (or at least fame) do you simply not understand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823 "2011-03-15T19:19:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/41 "2011-03-16T16:09:34Z")
Kesha. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/42 "2011-03-16T16:12:01Z")
Thirty years ago it would be **Rula Lenska**. She was famous for being i a TV commercial that seemed to assume you knew who she was. Nobody seemed to know. People magazine had a picture of her wearing a T-shirt that read “Who the Hell is Rula Lenska?”, which summed up everyone’s feelings about her. She was basically famous for being in a commercial that assumed she was famous. Years later I listed to tapes of the original _Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ and was shocked to hear her acting in it. It’s the only thing I know of, besides that commercial, that she’s actually done. And, no, I can’t be bothered to look her up on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/43 "2011-03-16T21:08:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Thirty years ago it would be **Rula Lenska**. She was famous for being i a TV commercial that seemed to assume you knew who she was. Nobody seemed to know. People magazine had a picture of her wearing a T-shirt that read “Who the Hell is Rula Lenska?”, which summed up everyone’s feelings about her. She was basically famous for being in a commercial that assumed she was famous. > Years later I listed to tapes of the original _Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ and was shocked to hear her acting in it. It’s the only thing I know of, besides that commercial, that she’s actually done. > And, no, I can’t be bothered to look her up on the internet. Rula Lenska was a pretty well known actress on British TV in the '70s and '80s, so in the UK her celebrity was earned (at least as much as is that of any actor who is lucky enough to be cast as a major character in a hit TV show, and who makes a competent job of it). So far as I can make out, she became a joke in America because some idiotic ad man put her in an ad as a “celebrity spokeswoman” on American TV, when she had, in fact, never, or scarcely ever, been seen in America before. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/44 "2011-03-16T21:15:46Z")
Are some people really that confused when someone is famous for being extremely attractive, like Kim Kardashian? One I can’t understand is Sarah Jessica Parker. Nort remotely attractive and not a particularly good actress. ---
**Author:** ![Sakuma\_Drops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sakuma\_Drops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sakuma_Drops)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/45 "2011-03-16T21:32:01Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > My big one was Sally Struthers. Other than _All In The Family_, the only thing I know she’s done is hawk technical school (can’t remember which one). She was the voice of Rebecca Cunningham on _Talespin_. …what? I’m not _that_ old. Someone on this board must have watched that show, right? If you were 6-12 years old in the early '90s, it was great. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/46 "2011-03-16T22:04:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Are some people really that confused when someone is famous for being extremely attractive, like Kim Kardashian? OK, show of hands: Is there anyone out there who doesn’t personally know several women who are hotter than Kim Kardashian, but who nonetheless are not famous? Sure, it helps to be hot, but that’s not enough for fame, not by a longshot. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/47 "2011-03-16T22:09:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, show of hands: Is there anyone out there who doesn’t personally know several women who are hotter than Kim Kardashian, but who nonetheless are not famous? Sure, it helps to be hot, but that’s not enough for fame, not by a longshot. I can think of several I know personally and see regularly. Admittedly Kardassian is not of the physical type I prefer; I don’t care for her face, which is, for me, the main determinant of hotness, and moreover her breasts are larger than I prefer. But any of these girls I am thinking of, all about her age (assuming KK is mid-twenties, yes?) simply blow her out of the water. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/48 "2011-03-16T22:14:42Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Are some people really that confused when someone is famous for being extremely attractive, like Kim Kardashian? **Chronos** beat me to it. Being extremely attractive is one criteria that keeps people in the spotlight, but it doesn’t generate the original spotlight. She’s famous because she had money, a “famous” last name to drop, and connections in Hollywood to spin up the idea of being the center of a reality show about her celebutant life. After that, she’s ridden on being a celebrity, and her sisters have coasted along for the ride. > [@Sakuma\_Drops](#): > > She was the voice of Rebecca Cunningham on _Talespin_. > > …what? I’m not _that_ old. Someone on this board must have watched that show, right? If you were 6-12 years old in the early '90s, it was great. From what you’re saying, you’ve got the age thing backwards. I was 6-12 in the late '70s/early '80s. And she was well known for simply being Sally Struthers long before _Talespin_. ---
**Author:** ![Sakuma\_Drops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sakuma\_Drops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sakuma_Drops)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/49 "2011-03-16T22:23:00Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > From what you’re saying, you’ve got the age thing backwards. I was 6-12 in the late '70s/early '80s. And she was well known for simply being Sally Struthers long before _Talespin_. I guess in an odd way I was trying to say “don’t knock _Talespin_ as a legit source of fame, because it was a pretty cool thing to watch when I was growing up.” I was almost gonna mention the early '90s sitcom _Step By Step_, too, but I remembered that it was Suzanne Somers who was in that one, not Sally Struthers. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/50 "2011-03-17T01:05:35Z")
Sally Struthers is also famous for parading millions of starving Ethopians on TV during the 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/51 "2011-03-17T01:40:46Z")
> [@](#): > > My big one was Sally Struthers. Other than All In The Family, the only thing I know she’s done is hawk technical school (can’t remember which one) Before she played Gloria on **All in the Family** , she was “The Smothers Brothers Dancer” on **The Smothers Brothers** (The joke being that other variety show had whole phalanxes of dancers: “…with the June Taylor Dancers!” The Smothers Brothers only had ONE – _The_ Smothers Brothers Dancer.) Years after All in the Family ended, she played a divorced Gloria Stivic in the short-lived comedy **Gloria**. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/52 "2011-03-17T01:49:14Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Sally Struthers is also famous for parading millions of starving Ethopians on TV during the 80’s. Iirc, she was pimping them for cups of coffee and/or pennies a day. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/53 "2011-03-17T01:54:01Z")
> [@](#): > > **Skald the Rhymer**"…But Snooki? I just don’t get it. She’s not even hot, at least not to my eyes. It’s like someone saying, in all serious, “My favorite food is booger casserole.” My only response can be, “Wait…what? Are you serious? And are you _nuts_?” I was going to selfrighteously refute all the examples given in this thread then I read this and laughed so hard I forgot whatever the hell point I was going to make. Thanks for the guffaw, **Skald**. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/54 "2011-03-17T04:07:49Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > Snooki is famous for being in a successful show. **Sure it was just luck of the draw that it was her and not some other cute girl.** The Kardashians are a little harder to understand as the show seemed to be about them from the beginning. Which is different from other reality shows that have some gimick to get you to care about the people in the show. Why is the word “other” in that bolded sentence? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/55 "2011-03-17T04:37:17Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why is the word “other” in that bolded sentence? I am not sure what you are getting at ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/56 "2011-03-17T13:32:04Z")
I’ll nominate Liz Cheney and Bristol Palin. So they’re the offspring of veeps or veep wannabees. Doesn’t mean I really care what they have to say. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/57 "2011-03-17T13:44:27Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > She, along with Agnes Gallin, wrote the 1973 TV movie, _The Girl Most Likely To_, which starred Stockard Channing, in the ultimate revenge movie. > > That alone qualifies her for success 🙂 > > Speaking of which I never understood, Joey Heatherton or Charo, except for the fact men like curvy women in skimpy outfits 😃 _The Girl Most Likely To_ was very good, and as you said the ultimate revenge movie! This was the first I’d seen of Stockard Channing and I expected her to be a breakout big star after this aired. Wasn’t Ed Asner the detective in this film? To the person who doesn’t know this movie, but who has seen a lot of movies, have you dismissed this because you don’t know it? Jeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/58 "2011-03-17T13:54:34Z")
Justin Timberlake. He’s not that good looking, in fact a bit wimpy, He still looks about 13 - his moves and music seem derivative - he hasn’t got a particularly impressive voice - the high pitched wining doesn’t work for me. His performances continue to underwhelm me. I still don’t get his success. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/59 "2011-03-17T14:00:21Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > One I can’t understand is Sarah Jessica Parker. Nort remotely attractive and not a particularly good actress. I’ll happily take your leavings! ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823/60 "2011-03-17T14:00:22Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Oprah. > > Who at the last judgment will be shown standing at the left hand of Satan. Also the same reason Jenny McCarthy’s anti-vaccine idiocy managed to get any traction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-success-or-at-least-fame-do-you-simply-not-understand/574823.md?page=4)