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The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

Almost famous: Brett Cohen tricks New York

One pair of sunglasses, two body guards, and a couple of photographers will apparently make you look like a celebrity in New York City.

Brett Cohen, who is a regular 21-year-old college student, attracted crowds in Times Square when he tricked the good people of New York, according to ABC News.

“Nowadays everyone can achieve fame, why can’t I do it to?” said Cohen in an ABC news interview. So he got his crew ready, put on a striped shirt and shades and stepped outside. His own camera people followed him as well as his female “assistants.”

Soon hundreds of people took pictures with him. Young girls screamed when they snapped photos with Cohen and one of his “fans” said it was the best day of her life.

Some people claimed that they saw him in the “Spider-Man” movies and others swore they heard his new single on the radio.

One onlooker told the cameras, “I think he is excellent. I think he is absolutely awesome… I just took a picture with him and I feel special.”

The crowds got bigger by the minute and everyone wanted a picture or a hug from Cohen. All Cohen was thinking about was being at home.

“I would love to have my own show [but] when this was going on all I wanted to do was sit in bed and watch TV.”

With a little help from his friends and a few people he found on Craigslist, he achieved his 15 minutes of fame and now he is a little famous too.

He has appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and news articles have been written about him in major media outlets such as the Washington and Huffington Post.

This experiment shows that Americans are fanatics when it comes to celebrities and people who look like them. We don’t care if we have never seen the person in a movie or on a show, but if they have a few people following them and body guards then they must be well-known.

Even people in this country who have absolutely no talent are famous and worshipped by millions. A perfect example of this is Kim Kardashian.

Not everyone has a father who was O.J. Simpson’s lawyer, but many have gotten famous through Youtube. Videos such as the “Bed Intruder Song” have made Antoine Dodson a couple thousand dollars from people purchasing his auto-tuned song on iTunes. Or Rebecca Black’s “Friday” has made her famous over night with more than 167 million views.

But where are these instant celebrities now? Nobody seems to care.

Cohen will be famous for a week or two, but soon people will forget about him too as well as the thousands of others who have gotten their shot at being superstars.

The point is that it is very easy to become a superstar, but much harder to maintain that position. One thing is for sure and that is celebrity years are like dog years so if you get famous then enjoy it while it lasts.
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