Celebrities messing up in search of elusive fame

When good girls go bad and radio personalities turn into porn stars, succinctly put, it's celebrity cock up, writes Stevens Muendo

Judith Nyambura is a girl of many facets. She is a painter, a poet and a designer. She wears a classic blue-eyed blonde demeanour.

Cindy, Avril, Wanja, Ray C, Maurysha, TID

Her personality suggests a reticent and sultry individual. But don’t be fooled. Avril the singer, on the other hand, is a charming sexy girl who radiates adorable beauty. She can be quite an unpredictable party animal. We like both personas.

Knowing this too well, it wasn’t a shock to Pulse when she appeared on a local magazine cover with poses that you can only get in Playboy.

Fusing her trademark charming grin and brevity, Avril posed in a sexy and seductive way. She changed jerseys at will with limited cover save for a ball, a disguise item that could only help keep eyes on ‘the spot’.

She flaunted her assets with compelling abandon. For a beauty and celebrity in the making — who many men in town have been casting a luscious eye at since she announced her arrival in the showbiz world — Avril got thumbs-up for the alluring cover and consequent pictorial spread, which arguably got the glossy magazine a life line. Soon, other magazines lined up for her. Many more still are lining up.

Accolades

She has since won many hearts and accolades, more than any female singer has received this year. She was voted the Best Female Artiste during this year’s Nzumari awards.

She recieved a CHAT nomination before ascending to continental fame as her song Mama got nominated for both the Kilimanjaro awards (Tanzania) and the just concluded Channel O awards.

And the list goes on. She was recently rated one of the sexiest celebrities in Pulse and with her songs receiving positive weekly reviews.

It’s no doubt Avril has been the fastest rising star in our urban entertainment. What a happy year it had been for lovely Nyambura.

Then… came the bombshell last week! Images bearing spitting likeness to her purportedly having a romantic blitz with another girl hit the Internet, confounding both friend and foe.

The motive of the ‘photo session’ not withstanding, critics have come out bashing the soft-spoken singer whose music career is barely three years old. Her haters seem to have the last smile.

It is not clear who posted the pictures even as allegations of showbiz rivalry and matters of love gone sore hit tabloid and showbiz columns.

Before the pictures found their way to the Internet, dozens of hate mails were posted on the Pulse fan page with readers branding Avril’s sudden rise as overrated. You could almost see it coming. As her Ogopa stable came to her defence last week, a courageous Avril held her head high and went on with business as usual, marketing her new hit video Chokoza, which ironically means to stir things up.

Revealing photos

That again betrayed her innocence on the matter and got heads turning. The video was released around the same time the nude photos hit the information superhighway and one could easily deduce that Avril was part of the Facebook scheme meant to create vibe and popularity for the success of the new release.

If that were the case, then, the stunt has paid off as the new Chokoza video is now receiving massive airplay and is getting positive ratings in showbiz TV shows.

"The nudity culture is growing all over the world and it’s no longer a big deal. Why do you people demonise celebs when they get caught up in this? They are also human," argues Susan Akelo who claims that she has posed nude before her boyfriend.

Talking to Pulse on Monday, Avril said the matter was now behind her and vowed to rise above the image-tainting blow as quickly as is humanly possible.

"I did not post the pictures. I am not seeking fame. My (music) career has been on a tremendous rise and I have no single reason to go to such desperate measures to stay in the limelight," she told Pulse even as she fell short of explaining the episode behind the flattering same sex romance.

Barely had 48-hours passed after Avril’s breaking story, a popular media personality stole the thunder from her after vivid sex tape of the radio presenter was posted on Youtube.

Viral world

The video, which has since gone viral, has the guy and a middle-aged girl having romps in bed under a recorder, which the girl asks the guy to delete after the clip. The faces of both lovers are easily discernible in the five-minute clip.

"It is great to be known. But choose wisely what you want to be known for…" says straight talking radio presenter and columnist Caroline Mutoko. "The problem is, at some point you will want to move on with your life and those nasty images will simply refuse to go away. They will haunt you to your grave.

They will rob you of opportunities, spouses, respect and, worse of all, peace of mind," Mutoko notes, who describes the two incidents as desperate fame seeking ventures.

Celebrity cock-ups and career threatening stunts are on the increase. Though the road to fame has never been an easy one, the allure to showbiz stardom in a competitive industry now has our celebrities seeking near bizarre stunts which were known to be a reserve for Western based artistes.

Yet, though for some, such comeback moves have positively worked as a career booster and a reaffirming step into the spotlight, the consequent negative impact — thanks to stringent cultural morals — has many a times left a distaste among the singer’s fans. Many have had their careers go down the drain.

Last month, another singing newcomer Maurysha shocked fans after she made some bizarre moves during a night concert held in a Nairobi college.

Wearing a transparent semi dress, the singer danced her way to the floor and wiggled with her legs up exposing her private parts in the full glare of whoever cared to see.

Since then, the photos have been making rounds in the internet with her controversial relationship with her former singing boyfriend Kenzo dominating showbiz pages. Even with the hype, music fans and would be supporters are not taking the matter positively.

Not reading the negative signals, Maurysha instead seems to be dancing the five-minutes attention through. She has even gone ahead to disassociate herself from the Avril saga even before anyone suggested she was the culprit.

volleyball queen

Avril and Maurysha are not alone. Revealing photos of celebrated volleyball star Janet Wanja found their way to the Internet two years ago. This was months after she had been left out of a major continental volleyball tournament, signalling her dwindling prospects.

The photos showing Wanja, posing suggestively in skimpy attire are still doing rounds on the Internet.

Wanja’s only comment to Pulse was; "I know about the photos but I shall not comment on them."

Sources close to the volleyball star have it that Wanja is "a spontaneous happy party girl whose private life can easily find its way to the public"

"I am not shocked about the photos. She could have easily posted them herself," said our source that asked to remain anonymous.

Locally, since then, Wanja’s volleyball career has never picked up as she missed out on the just concluded World Championship in Japan.

The same fate befell Cindy, formerly of the all girl group Blu*3. Just after leaving the group in 2008, her nude pictures, taken in her room in Kampala, were posted on the net with each going for a cool Sh10, 000 per printed copy.

Cindy’s pictures stormed Kampala after she fell out with her Italian lover Mario Brunnett. It is alleged that Cindy fell out with bandmates Lillian and Jackie over Mario as all the girls wanted a share of this Italian, so when Cindy said she was going on holiday with Mario for a month, the other two girls gave her only five days to return or risk replacement. Cindy opted to quit and start a solo career. Tabloids portrayed Cindy ‘as a weirdo who loves to pose nude’ claiming that she had even posed nude for a white man only identified as Mario.

blues but not three

And sticking her head high above the criticism, Cindy went ahead to host a show at Club Rouge (a leading Kampala night out joint) that Friday and ended up hosting a radio show which turned out to be a flop.

It was after the episode that Cindy released a solo single Mbikoye, which received favourable reviews. Cindy had her groove back. But that was about it. Her popularity has since dwindled.

Just like Cindy, our very own Kaz found herself in the same dilemma admitted that nude photos of her posted in the net had been taken for her private use. She frantically heaped the blame of their leakage on a friend. But naysayers widely believed that Kaz could have personally posted the photos to popularise her just released album Somin.

Questionable as the situation was, Kaz went on to write a press release beseeching the media to help her ‘kill’ the story as it was tainting her image and causing major distress to her family, especially her mother.

Even in the nduguland, controversial diva Ray C had a sex tape that featured her and an unidentified man find its way to the masses.

Shortly after, the singer, wedging a stinging attack on her critics, posted a harsh message on her blog. "Because you can’t get sex, don’t tell me…. How did your mother and father make you…?

I love being black and I love sex." the message said in part. And with that, Ray C was back on top of her game releasing new singles. Perhaps it’s not always doom and gloom after all.