Esprit De Corpse

‘HOW far would you go to be famous?

Parky, pictured three weeks after his unfortunate demise

It’s a question many wannabes have asked themselves since Mark Chapman shot John Lennon, Geri Halliwell posed topless and George Dubya Bush auditioned for Stars & Stripes In Their Eyes.

But what about real lasting fame, of the sort that endures long after you’re dead and gone.

That’s what the Mirror says Channel 4 are offering to anyone terminally ill who wants to star in the new TV show Dust To Dust.

The “experiment” will feature a body decomposing for several months under the glare of television lights.

True, this has already been done, and anyone who has watched the Des O’Connor show or Michael Parkinson deteriorate over the years has seen a similar thing.

But still some people are unhappy. Someone called “an observer” in the Express accuses the show of being “cynical”.

And a spokesperson for the organisation Mediawatch-UK tells the Mirror: “To call for a terminally ill volunteer is extraordinary. This is the worst kind of voyeurism. It will alienate viewers and advertisers.”

Or attract a whole new lot of new ones – undertakers, embalmers, taxidermists, necrophiliacs…’

Posted: 4th, November 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink