WHAT ARE THE TRUE QUALITIES OF A CELEBRITY?

Celebrity status? What does it mean today? What attributes does one need to be recognised as a real celebrity. Well from what I can see and from what we are bombarded with, we have role models such a Jade Goody “whose zat den”? who is only famous for winning “I’m as Celebrity – Get Me Out of here. another reality tv show. Pouting Posh whose only credentials as far as I am concerned, is that she has a very large and varied wardrobe, looks like a well-groomed stick insect and an incredibly ugly pout and so the list goes on an on. Reality TV, yep that’s where we see our stars portray their talents and that’s what our young people are seeing as their heroes and sheroes, people to aspire to becoming.

Yet compared to bygone days – days when celebrities brought something to the table, when talent and skill, intelligence, knowledge and star quality were important attributes to celebrity status, today’s celebrities are certainly well off the mark.

Yet someone who can truly claim to have made it because of her talent is Jennifer Hudson, who stars alongside, Beyonce, Jamie Fox, Eddie Murphy in Dream Girls.
Jennifer Hudson was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, where she graduated in 1999. She auditioned for the third season of American Idol in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a member of the first group of semifinalists, but was not voted through to the final round. However, she was brought back on the wildcard round and put through as a finalist by contest judge Randy Jackson.
Hudson struggled to gain popularity in the early stages of the live shows, receiving the second lowest number of votes in two of the first three shows.
In November 2005, Hudson was cast in the prized role of Effie White in the film adaptation of Dreamgirls She beat hundreds of professional singers and actresses for the role including, ironically, Fantasia Barrino who had beaten Hudson in American Idol.
Reviews of the film acclaimed Hudson's performance, and, along with winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, she has been lauded as a possible front-runner for 2007's Academy Award for Best Supporting Actressand was nominated on January 23, 2007. She has since won the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Supporting actress, which has further made her the likely recipient of the oscar.
Now people, don’t tell me that it cannot be done. Don’t tell me that true star qualitity is a myth, a has-been and don’t tell me that you too can’t reach for the stars.
My catch phrase is “Aspire to Inspire – Dare to Dream” and that is what we all should be doing. Like I have always said, some people are quite happy being where they aer at, and that is pefectly fine. Yet there is a growing band of individuals who have become despondent, disillusioned. So what we need to do more than ever before is to inspire each other, support each other and encourage each other. Surround yourself with likemined people and draw strength from that.

The 9-5 is a sad and painful reality for many, who feel trapped, stagnant within a place or a role which is going no-place at all. Yet until you feel the pain of stagnation, until you feel it so deep inside you that you no longer have the urge to get out of your bed in the morning to face the day, then you will never take action to reach for the skies.
We all have the potential to aspire to more within us, yet are you prepared to make scarifices to get there?