I pity celebrities. Where many people envy
them for the attention they draw in public,
all I am able to feel for many of them is pity.
How do they survive? I would literally die if I
had to endure the public scrutiny that
celebrities are subjected to.
When I moved from the theatre to film seven
years ago, I was very insistent on a move
that would put me behind the camera. I had
endured some popularity as a stage actor in
my time at the Lagos State University and
some of it was enjoyable but largely, it was a
chore I could do without. While I have
ended up doing some film/TV acting, it’s
been with huge reluctance.
I have been with celebrities in private
spaces and the transformation from the
façade they put up when public scrutiny is
at hand is simply amazing. Very few of them,
like 2Face Idibia, retain their identities
largely, whether cameras are present or not.
Some of them, like comedian Tee-A just
don’t give a hoot and cannot be bothered to
be celebrities. To have every single thing
you do watched for errors so that blogs,
newspapers, websites and all can benefit
from your misadventure is thoroughly
discomforting for me. In other to avoid this,
you are forced to behave in a certain
manner in public, to be polite to people that
disgust you, to answer infinitely dumb
questions from dumb reporters (Can we
meet you?), to hug and take pictures with
fans whose body odour can cause heartburn,
all the while seething inside. I couldn’t be a
celebrity even if you paid me.
Since red carpets became a permanent
feature of events in Nigeria some years ago,
I have watched celebrity friends fret over
what to where to what event and how to
ensure outfits are not repeated so those evil
commenters on Linda Ikeji’s blog and
Bella Naija will not call them out. I find
the whole exercise very amazing. I avoid the
red carpet like a plague, unless the event
has my name directly attached to it, say like
the premiere of a film I am involved in. Even
then, it’s always a quick dash, with poses
that ensure the pictures will not come out
great. I guess the bright lights are just not
for me.
On few occasions I try to put myself in the
shoes of some of these celebs. How does one
handle the fact that you can’t go down the
road and buy something on your own? That
you probably can’t eat in peace and quiet in
a restaurant without someone coming to
interrupt in the name of appreciating you?
How do you date someone and try to love
truly when you can’t be sure that the person
likes you for you and not the stardom? How
do you trust? Who do you trust? How do you
handle friendships?
Over the past decade and a half I have lived
in many guises. Either in writing,
broadcasting or performing, I have sought
the comfort of living within other characters
that I have created to shield me away from
the popularity, and in some cases notoriety,
that the endeavor brought my way. It is on
the one hand perhaps a show of
spinelessness, the inability to confront the
realities of my writing, performance or
broadcasting. Perhaps it’s also a distancing,
letting the work stand for itself without the
complexities of my name having any effect
on it. If something came to you through an
unknown person, the likelihood that the
thing will be the focal point and not the
person is way higher.
On the other hand, and I suspect this might
be the real reason, I just find popularity
tiresome and I really always want to be me.
Perhaps there’s a celebrity gene that people
posses and this allows them to somehow life
through the sum total of their public lives
being very different from their private parts.
Kudos to them, if that be the case. That gene
is grossly deficient in my genetic make up
and I am happy for it.
Source - www.thenet.ng/2013/11/chris-ihidero-unedited-private-parts-public-lives/

Nothing stops one from being real as a celebrity! Trust me,its better If you keep a low profile.dont go about doing things anyhow cos you're a celebrity,a role model.I mean be nice and wise all the time.

Cumin

u think being a celebrity in Nigeria is hard? ask the English celebrities about the English press and paparazzi... At least in Nigeria u don't get paparazzi besieging ur house every now and then trying to get a caption of u at the slightest opportunity, and u don't get magazines trying compete with one another to be the first to post the first pics of ur new born child... I think it's the Nigerian celebrities who put themselves in difficult situations tho. I mean how can a female celebrity post an instagram pics of herself rocking a channel bag worth over a million naira and she expects us to believe she is not rich?...