Brian Hieggelke

On Sunday night, nearly 40 million people will tune into the Academy Awards telecast for our culture's biggest annual celebrity love fest. We'll study what they say and what they wear, offering catty coffee-table commentary while our personal fantasies of sharing that stage remain the private dreams of millions. The movie business has long been the repository of our collective dreams of stardom, ever since and long before the mythological discovery of Lana Turner working at a Hollywood soda fountain.

Since then, our communal obsession with celebrity has gone year-round and global. The macabre death of Anna Nicole Smith dominates mainstream news coverage for days and days; whole cable networks and countless Web sites exist to feed our insatiable need for the latest fix.

In the golden days of Hollywood, the appeal of the stars was magnified by the distance they lived from our mundane lives; we could only fantasize what their existence must be like. Nowadays, our stars are much more accessible--whether they want to be or not--and, paradoxically, more popular than ever. The perpetual celebrity news cycle spares us few details. But it's not the attention gushing around the A-, B- or even C-listers that represents the biggest cultural shift. It's the advent of the everyday celebrity, a product of reality television's heyday, that has fulfilled Andy Warhol's prophecy in ways that he probably never really imagined. The streets of Chicago are full of 'em.

Sunday night, Chicago's Jennifer Hudson might just win an Academy Award for "Dreamgirls." Jennifer shot to stardom, not by paying her dues on the musical theater circuit or by suffering bit parts in tiny little movies, but via a losing effort on the ultimate reality show, "American Idol."

Time was, being on TV was a big deal. Witness the knuckleheads mugging for the camera every time the local news does a live remote. But today, everyone knows someone who's had something of a star turn on TV. Across the aisle from me, Remeka Sullivan works in advertising for Newcity. Before this, she was a contestant on "Style Me with Rachel Hunter" on the WE network. Down the hall, Erin Gipson gives voice lessons for a local music school. She's also a recently eliminated contestant on the current season of "Beauty and the Geek." Yes, with dozens and dozens of reality shows currently airing on television, their alumni are everywhere. Some, like Jennifer Hudson, "The Apprentice" winner Bill Rancic and perpetual "Bacholerette" Jen Schefft, seem to become truly famous in the process. Most, however, get their fifteen minutes and go home.

We caught up with many of Chicago's reality alums to ask about life before, during and after television.

The Unreal World
"Real World: Chicago"'s Tonya Cooley

Rhinoceros Reality
"Big Brother"'s James Rhine

At the Altar No Longer
"The Bachelorette"'s Jenn Schefft

Post-Real
An update on some other local reality-TV stars

(2007-02-20)

Also by Brian Hieggelke

Super Special
The parties, the stories, the food--the Bears are finally back to the Bowl
(2007-01-30)

Tip of the Week
Even the casual dance music observer's likely familiar with the career of Chicago's Felix Stallings, Jr. After a decade as one of the leading forces in Chicago house's second wave, his "Kittenz and Thee Glitz," one of the seminal dance music records of the decade, not only shot his star into mainstream orbit, but made Miss Kitten and Tommie Sunshine household names as well
(2007-01-09)

Who are the 100 Most Famous Chicagoans?
We're living in a paradoxical time. Thanks to the advent of digital technology, the hegemony of mass media is weaker than it's been in generations. The headlines in the daily newspaper often report on its very own impending doom. So go the broadcast networks. Yet, at the same time, the culture of celebrity has never been more pervasive
(2006-11-07)

Chicago Fame 150
An expanded list of Chicago's most well-known personalities
(2006-11-07)

The Nineties in Rerun
(2006-08-22)

By Design
(2006-08-01)

Sand on the Brain
(2006-06-06)

Fanfare for the Uncommon Man
(2006-05-31)

Life without Newspapers
(2006-03-28)

Life without Newspapers
(2006-02-26)

Designer Toothpaste?
(2006-02-21)

Life without Newspapers
(2006-02-14)

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