Celebiographies

Welcome to Mecca Bingo’s Celebrity Column, where you can read celebrity-based ponderings before indulging in your favourite online bingo games for cash and big bingo jackpots. Read on for some thoughts on celebrity autobiographies (or celebiographies as we like to call them) and then play bingo online here at Mecca Bingo for your chance to take home a big cash prize today.

These days it seems you can’t walk past a Borders book shop or WH Smiths without your eye being inadvertently drawn to the latest “life-story” from the most recent winner of Big Brother or the latest teen singing sensation. Celebrity autobiographies are the order of the day and age is no barrier. In celeb land, if you’re not writing the latest autobiography, you’re reading it. Wikipedia defines “autobiography” in the following way: Autobiography (from the Greek auton, 'self', bios, 'life' and graphein, 'write') is biography, the writing of a life story, from the viewpoint of the subject. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography may be based entirely on the writer's memory. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography)

It’s the “life story” part of this which doesn’t seem to fit in with many of the celeb autobiographies we see today. Celebs are penning at least two autobiographies before they reach 30, or, at least, someone is penning them for them. Think Jade Goody, Chantelle Houghton, Jordan, Victoria Beckham and Jodie Marsh, to name just a few. Now it may be that these young celebs have so much to say that they cannot resist the urge to get it down on paper, Jade Goody for one has certainly been through a lot in her relatively short life – more than many of us. Or perhaps they just love talking about themselves; Jodie Marsh’s blog would seem to suggest she might fall into this category. Or perhaps it is simply the Siren-like cry of the oodles of cash they can make for churning out some mildly entertaining anecdotes, sordid gossip or fashion advice based on their celebrity-lifestyle, that tempts them to bring out an autobiography well before the first botox injection has even begun to wear off. We couldn’t possibly comment.

That not all the celebrities actually write their own autobiographies will come as no surprise to anybody. At the age of 24, in May 2006, Jade Goody released her autobiography, imaginatively titled: Jade: My Autobiography. The book was full of revelations about Jade’s genuinely difficult childhood and young life but was not written by the reality TV star herself. It was actually written by Heat magazine features editor Lucie Cave. In all fairness to Jade, she has never professed to be a literary whiz and her life to date has certainly not been dull. Abandoned by her father who later died of a heroin overdose, Jade often had to care for her mother Jackie Budden who had lost one arm in a motorbike accident and was a regular smoker of cannabis.

Another former Big Brother contestant to bring out an autobiography at a very young age was Celebrity Big Brother 4 winner Chantelle Houghton. Chantelle, 23, was the first non-celeb to enter the Celeb BB house and ironically has gone on to become a celeb in her own right. Although not famous for any discernible talent, Chantelle has so far made the most of her fame and released her autobiography Living the Dream in October 2006, less than a year after she first emerged into the public eye on CBB. Unfortunately for Chantelle, the book only sold 5,000 copies. Proving perhaps that it’s not enough to simply be famous, you might have to have something to talk about as well.

It’s not just reality TV stars that have felt the urge to put pen to paper (or, at least, to ask someone else to put pen to paper for them), glamour models are partial to a bit of autobiography action too, quite often of the salacious kind. The UK’s two most prolific glamour girls, Jordan and Jodie Marsh, have both brought out revealing autobiographies and the two arch enemies haven’t been backward in coming forward when it comes to speaking their minds (some might say bitching, not us of course). Jordan has already released two autobiographies by the age of 27 – Being Jordan and Jordan: a Whole New World – at that rate she’ll have released six life stories if she lives to 90 years of age. Which is something for us all to look forward to; I’m sure you’ll agree. Jodie Marsh, also 27, is currently lagging behind in the autobiography stakes, with only Keeping It Real (My Autobiography) to her name so far. Mind you, she came into the public eye a little later than Jordan so rest assured her second life story won’t be far off.

Younger than both Jordan and Jodie and soon to have two autobiographies to her name is 21 year-old Welsh-warbler-turned-TV-host Charlotte Church. Her first autobiography, Voice Of An Angel, was released when Charlotte was just 14 years old and focused on her launch into the singing limelight, including the success of her classical album and singing for the Prince of Wales and the Pope. Her second is to be released some time this year and it is reported that Charlotte benefited from a six figure deal. With sums like that, it’s no surprise that celebs are churning out the autobiographies left, right and centre!

Come back next week for fresh celebrity musings and, in the meantime, play bingo games online here at Mecca Bingo – you can buy the next celebiography with your winnings!