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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

I Want a Famous Face

01:46 / 23.03.04

This show is like watching someone go out, buy a hundred thousand dollar car, deliberately get into it and drive it into a brick wall, because they think it'll make him or her look better.

So far there were twins who thought that they were hideous and wanted to look like Brad Pitt, and now there's the Britney Spears impersonater who wants to look more like, well, Britney Spears.

Is it ethical to watch this? Is it beyond the realm of tasteful schadenfreude to watch people get into debt (though certainly some of it defrayed by MTV) and go through really painful procedures to achieve these transformations? MTV is not portraying them in the most positive light- hell, maybe it's impossible to, but it certainly seems like every time a camera's on them, they're saying something dumb. Is it any different from watching a show on Discovery on a similar topic?

And every time, the person in question says that they're sure that the surgery will give them more self confidence, which is kind of heart breaking. Thoughts?

MTV's show page is here.

02:04 / 23.03.04

There's an article on this in (suprise, suprise) MTV magazine... I remember looking at it when we received it last month, and the only thing we could come up with was that they didn't really look like the celebrities they wanted to. What a waste of money...

The reasons behind the surgery are creepy as hell though...

03:48 / 23.03.04

And here I thought the Extreme Makeover show made me feel, I don't know, very sick on a psychic level of some sort, but this has just topped it.

23:08 / 31.03.04

I must admit that I love Extreme Makeover. I don't believe that there's anything unethical about wanting to rebuild yourself into a form that fits YOUR OWN aesthetic sensiblities. Just do it for YOURSELF, not to please someone else.

For example, in another thread there was a girl whose parents wanted her get a breast reduction because they thought it would be easier for her to marry (peculiar logic, as it is my understanding that most men LIKE big tits). Also, who says she even has to get married in the first place? Don't risk your life to please anyone else. They'll just find something else "wrong" with you.

I must admit that the Brad Pitt Twins did look better after their surgery (even if they didn't look anything like Pitt) So long as THEY were satisfied with the results, the surgery was a success.

12:59 / 01.04.04

I must admit that the Brad Pitt Twins did look better after their surgery

well, to be honest, before the surgery they both look like someone had really laid into them with the ugly stick.

this show is such a train wreck. it's weird and horrifying and strange.

my girlfriend has wondered about the degree to which MTV may be turning a few isolated cases into a wider phenomenon, by bundling them together and giving them massive exposure.

she also noted a lot of these people don't seem to be in the same category of surgery. the twins want to look like Brad Pitt for vanity reasons, basically, and the Pamela Anderson chick is in the same boat there, but for the Britney impersonator it's more of a job thing, since that's what she does for a living, isn't it? she already looks a lot like Britney to begin with. isn't there a drag queen in there, too? i think she's a more complicated case also - there are larger issues of gender identity and such going on.

constant reader

13:40 / 01.04.04

Extreme Makeover, The Swan, I Want a Famous Face....another in the growing line of shows that make it not ok to be you and me.

Last night one episode focused on a woman who wanted to look more like Kate Winslett. Aside from the "I want Kate Winslett's boobs" mantra, she actually did need surgery to remove the apron of skin left over from her drastic weight loss. I was more taken aback by the attitude of her ex/boyfriend. She was all fine and good for him when she was fat, but now that she had lost the weight he suddenly had jealousy issues. Twit.

15:09 / 01.04.04

I am not actually against it ethically, it's kind of more of an issue with the whole TV thing. When they go through the show detailng all the different surgeries / corrections they make for someone, it comes off like a game show or those late night half hour paid advertisements "it slices, it dices, it'll whiten your teeth, and clear the spots off your arse". The selling of the idea to the audience disturbs me for some odd reason.

20:10 / 06.04.04

I don't think any of the kids looked like their celebrity afterwards. However, being a documentary producer, I think MTV did a good job at documenting the real life - FAR FROM Extreme MakeOver.

22:33 / 06.04.04

Fox has a show coming out soon called "The Swan," where not only do a bunch of women get plastic surgery, they then compete with each other in a beauty pagent to see who's surgery worked best. "Boy it must have been an intense experience going through all that surgery. . . too bad you're still worthless." Brrrrr. Sick on a psychic level is right. I knew reality tv was going to get more and more wrong as time went on, but this stuff just blows me away.

15:37 / 08.04.04

When I saw the commercial for "The Swan," I almost dry-heaved. Is this how far we've come? I'm about ready to burn down Fox headquarters... anyone with me?

15:52 / 08.04.04

How about a new show.... I want a Famous Ass! Sign me up for a J-LO special.

16:29 / 08.04.04

well, to be honest, before the surgery they both look like someone had really laid into them with the ugly stick.

Yeah, but they were only twenty, and they didn't seem to be really done with puberty yet. A dermatologist would've been a good first step.

The Pam Anderson girl depressed me because she had an adorable face before- maybe not drop dead sexy, in the conventional sense, but she made these funny little mischievous facial expressions which just don't look the same with giant lips.

18:10 / 08.04.04

" I'm about ready to burn down Fox HQ... anyone with me ? "

I think so, yeah. It wouldn't be quite so bad if the people responsible for this shit actually had to watch it themselves, but you just know they'd rather do anything but, and so never will.

Still on the plus side, the chains R Murdoch's going to have carry round when he winds up in hell seem to get longer with every passing day, so, y'know...

Haus of Mystery

20:47 / 08.04.04

If anyone wants my face it's up fer grabs.

00:04 / 09.04.04

Yeah, but they were only twenty, and they didn't seem to be really done with puberty yet. A dermatologist would've been a good first step.

I would have to agree there. It's quite possible that the guys' problems getting dates had more to do with their acne than their features. The acne was never really addressed, merely covered up. The fact that they still lived with their parents may also have had a negative impact on their love lives.

16:46 / 09.04.04

Don't you think the whole MTV-i-fication of these procedures sorta downplays the idea that these elective surgeries, just like any other non-elective surgery that requires anesthesia can, possibly, kill you?

And don't you think that these people are more likely, if only because this surgery is being furnished to them for their inclusion in the show, to take that risk than if they were making the decision privately?

I think it's borderline unethical to perform surgery on people to whom the dangers of which have been explained and from whom consent has been obtained under highly unusual circumstances.

Because, doesn't it seem they must be pretty damned desperate for attention if they'll have a personal surgical procedure filmed and featured on MTV? All in order to attempt to look and live like people whose faces and lives theirs don't and probably never will resemble either?

That being said, I don't think it's necessarily immoral--but it's certainly a comment on how banal and inane our culture has become. I'm sure its Nielsen numbers will be great.

13:58 / 12.04.04

As I understand it, MTV is not paying for the procedures. The victims-er, participants are paying for their own surgery, MTV is just documenting.
The show also has these little vignettes about "when cosmetic surgery goes wrong": The guy who got a crappy nose job, the girl whose breast implants apparently gave her rhumatiod arthritis, ect.
Actually, I believe the show was initially meant to be percieved as a condemnation of this "phenomenon." But after the show is over, i still end up thinking about how I'd like to get my teeth done or how a breast lift might be a good idea.

21:32 / 15.04.04

Thanks for the clarification, woodtiger. My bad.

It really should be a holy-shit-a-thon, judging from the graphic footage of the surgeries themselves.

12:54 / 16.04.04

Don't you think the whole MTV-i-fication of these procedures sorta downplays the idea that these elective surgeries, just like any other non-elective surgery that requires anesthesia can, possibly, kill you?

I don't think so. I think MTV's coverage actually does give people a better idea of how disgusting and unnerving the surgery is, how hard recovery is, and so on. If MTV's disapproval of these surgeries is certainly subtle if it's there, but the negative aspects of the surgeries and the consequences are at least there. They can't really focus on the failure of the plastic surgery in terms of "getting a famous face," bc it would be too devastating and exploitative, but there are some briefs scenes where the subjects' friends remark, "well, he doesn't look like [the Celebrity,]" and/or the subject will admit it himself.

I think it's borderline unethical to perform surgery on people to whom the dangers of which have been explained and from whom consent has been obtained under highly unusual circumstances. Because, doesn't it seem they must be pretty damned desperate for attention if they'll have a personal surgical procedure filmed and featured on MTV?

"Famous Face" and "the Swan" and "Extreme Makeover" all make me question the ethics of the doctors who perform these surgeries, and perhaps that's a different thread, but it does seem highly unethical to me to give a young, pretty girl a boob job and chin lipo to help toward a goal of looking like Pam Anderson so that men will fantasize about her. That girl had "NEEDS COUNSELING" written all over her.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:22 / 17.04.04

Apparently there's a transexual episode coming up, M2F, of course, with a bloke that wants to look like, IIRC, J-Lo.

01:18 / 18.04.04

I'm watching the transexual episode right now. At first glance, you would never think she was born a male. She just looks like a really tall and skinny Juliette Lewis.

I think J. Lo is the wrong role model for her. She might be better off emulating someone less curvy, like Kate Moss or Christy Turlington or something.

20:19 / 21.04.04

I don't believe that there's anything unethical about wanting to rebuild yourself into a form that fits YOUR OWN aesthetic sensiblities. Just do it for YOURSELF, not to please someone else. –Woodtiger

It’s important to question how we build our aesthetic sensibilities. As time goes by so do fashions in body type and features. For example Marilyn Monroe and Twiggy. We are all held to beauty standards that we will never be able to meet, unless we are in the lucky 2% of the population that fit the current trend. Tastes change and are influenced by many factors such as time and culture. Images presented in the media feed us our insecurities by reinforcing their standards. Nobody wanted a J. Lo ass ten years ago.