Peaches Geldof has died...

[andy at handiwork]

'...my 4th and latest book is in your local Waterstones, 320pp
and ?25.'

That has narrowed it down a bit. Any more clues or do I have to inspect the jacket of every hardback in the history section? And when will it be in paperback?

[Essex Lad]

David Johnson wrote:

> Well it is very sad when anyone so young dies, particularly
> when they are a mother. Having said that, my heart sank when
> the BBC 10 o'clock news started with this item. It seems a
> classic example of someone being famous for being famous.
>
Hear hear.

[Arginald Valleywater]

And the big deal is?

[Sam Slater]

Feel for Geldoff and the kids really.

Agreed that she's famous for being famous........but famous she is, so it'll be covered. The fact her mother died young too and the obvious comparisons being made in peoples' minds will make this stand out more than it would normally have.

[max_tranmere]

This getting top-billing on the news was certainly strange. You would think this was a world famous actress or something. It is inevitable that the tabloids would do front pages about it today, Tuesday, but odd that many broadsheets did too.

The first really ubiquitous people who were famous-for-being-famous in my opinion were Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davis back in the 1960's, those two who got coverage as a result of their involvement in the Profumo Affair. You see film of them posing like Marilyn Monroe and being followed by photographers as if they were her. In reality they were nobodies who became known for reasons of infamy rather than fame but were treated like very famous people all the same.

In the 1990's with the explosion of celebrity media, the arrival of things like Hello and Ok and then a glut of trashy celeb mags that followed in their wake, you got even more of this sort of nonsense and still do. They have to fill their magazines so people deserving of hardly any coverage get loads. Most of this stuff is made up and some of the stories are gross aswell. That woman Kim Kardashian, who I know little about and I wonder what she is famous for, gets coverage in these magazines for the fact she has a big arse. I don't read these magazines and I wish they didn't exist but you can't help seeing the covers on the news stands. Kim Kardashian is apparently known for her big arse and a headline recently said "Kim Kardashian is growing her bottom for her forthcoming wedding".

We gets endless stuff about that awful Katie Price woman (Jordan) aswell, stories about how her and her ex partner don't get on. Isn't that inevitable? If they've split up they probably wouldn't get on. Stories about celebs having tan lines, about how Kate Moss has one knee larger that the other. I mean, what has happened to society?

[max_tranmere]

If I had my way books not written by the person claiming to write them would have to have this stated on them. Let's pretend the ghostwritter, the actual writer, was called Andy Smith - you would have "by Katie Price, ghostwritten by Andy Smith" rather than "written by Katie Price". Or maybe "by Katie Price, as told to Andy Smith". I think the celeb will still get too much credit though as it still sounds like they had a lot to do with it, but it's better than the present lie that all these celebs convey when they pretend they are authors. It would mean also, and this is important, that a real writer who actual does write a book will be confirming they actually DID write the thing due to the fact it is only their name on it and no reference to anyone else.

[max_tranmere]

You hear of families having a curse, I don't believe in such things but one almost could by virtue of the fact so much tragedy happens to them. People talk about how America's first-family, the Kennedy's, have a curse - so many of them died young. You could almost think of the Geldof's and those associated with them the same way: Paula Yates, Michael Hutchence, Peaches Geldof. I hope the rest of the Geldof family live long lives and don't go prematurely.

[Essex Lad]

max_tranmere wrote:

> You hear of families having a curse, I don't believe in such
> things but one almost could by virtue of the fact so much
> tragedy happens to them. People talk about how America's
> first family, the Kennedys, have a curse - so many of them
> died young. You could almost think of the Geldofs and those
> associated with them the same way: Paula Yates, Michael
> Hutchence, Peaches Geldof. I hope the rest of the Geldof family
> live long lives and don't go prematurely.

I suppose also because they were in the public eye and there were lot of them is why you notice.

There are a few Kennedys who died young but both parents lived long lives and so did most of the kids: Ambassador Kennedy was 81 and Mrs Kennedy lived to 104. Of the kids Rose died at 86, Eunice died at 88, Pat was 82, Jean is still alive at 86 and Teddy was 77. So only four died prematurely: two by an assassin's bullet and two in plane crashes.

There were 29 children in the next generation so odds would be that some would die early. Including all three generations, that's 40 people of whom six died prematurely ? as we have seen two by an assassin's bullet, three in plane crashes and one skiing into a tree.

[Essex Lad]

Does anyone actually believe that celebs write their own books?

Jordan's for example are written by Rebecca Farnsworth and her name does appear on the copyright page.

[Gentleman]

I'm not sure " curse" would stick in the geldof and assoc case as frankly it was self inflicted.

In honesty if they were non celebs if they were reported it would be in the daily mail and its ilk as smackead adulterer overdoses and pervert junkie dies in sordid sex accident.

Amazing how cash and mates in the media can rewrite history rather than being returning guests on the Jeremy Kyle show.