History Main / CelebrityIsOverrated

* "Lonely" by Music/JustinBieber is a short, somber song about how Bieber became '''very''' famous while he was still a [[ChildPopstar teenager]]. Jacob Tremblay plays a teenage Bieber in the music video.

* "Loser of the Year" by Music/SimplePlan is about the singer realizing that his fame and fortune isn't worth losing his girlfriend, leading to him wanting to throw all of it away if it means getting her back.

* The entire premise of ''Anime/PerfectBlue''.

* ''Fanfic/PeopleLikeUs'': [[spoiler: At the end of the story, Arthur talks to Murray Franklin on the phone about coming on his show. He's tempted to finally get some of the recognition he wanted, but then he realizes that Murray is probably going to bully him on the show; besides, he doesn't want to rope Travis into it.]]

* Literature/HarryPotter doesn't particularly enjoy being famous for killing Voldemort. He doesn't mind being praised for his Quidditch skills, however, but that's slightly different for a couple of reasons: a) He's earning ''those'' accolades by his own merits, whereas the thing with the Dark Lord happened when he was eighteen months old and was at least partly sheer dumb luck, b) it resulted in him having an exceedingly shitty childhood on account of his sole remaining relatives being horrible people who hated him for inconveniencing them, and c) it turns out that Voldemort was OnlyMostlyDead, and nursing a grudge. If anyone can claim to have a reason to angst about their fame, Harry can.
** And when other students started to be the target of gossip for similar reasons (their relatives being killed by Death Eaters), one of them (Susan Bones) lampshaded to Harry how horrible she finds the whole thing.

* Inverted ''Series/{{Friends}}'' where Joey, an aspiring actor, absolutely basks in his celebrity status when he is successful.

* ''Pinball/Rush2022'': [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] during "Limelight." While successfully making relevant shots adds to the player's fame (implicitly a good thing, since it awards points), the ultimate goal of the mode is to ''escape'' the limelight.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': In "The Two Faces Of Squidward" the titular cephalopod first enjoys the attention of everyone anxious to gaze at his new David-esque looks, but soon their excess devotion has him begging for his old face back.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', patriarch Rusty Venture spent his entire life [[StuckInTheirShadow stuck in the shadow]] of his FakeUltimateHero father, and wanted nothing more than the fame and prestige he had. He gets his wish after inheriting his brother's company and skyrocketing to the big leagues, but he grows tired of having to deal with public scrutiny and in the GrandFinale rants he was happier living in the middle of nowhere. [[spoiler:He gets his wish at the end when in order to prevent a ColonyDrop they manage to move the company headquarters [[BookEnds right where their old house used to be]].]]

* The central {{Aesop}} of ''VideoGame/Simulacra2''. The whole mess happens because the four friends become so obsessed with keeping their social media presence, particularly on Kimera, fully positive that they fall prey to the {{deal|WithTheDevil}} offered by the Ripple Man to eliminate all criticism. Said deal led to the death of Maya, as it always includes a sacrifice. This same thing is also what happened to many other victims of the Ripple Man. Getting the good ending requires [[spoiler:deleting the Kimera accounts of the characters]], which was also what a previous near-victim, Charlie Asther, did to escape- he [[spoiler:gave up all technology and fled to the woods]]. The article covering Charlie even brings up the negative effect that social media can have on mental health.

* Although overall he's quite happy being a wealthy, famous bestselling novelist, the first episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' makes it quite clear that Richard Castle is getting a little bored with the repetitive monotony of fame and the shallow world he's found himself in (except for the bits where he gets to sign the breasts of attractive, flirty women. He doesn't mind those bits much), which is partly why he finds the idea of solving mysteries with down-to-earth cops quite appealing.

* Parodied in ''[[WesternAnimation/GarfieldSpecials Garfield Goes Hollywood]]'' by Garfield himself. As Jon trots out the usual justifications for this trope, such as forgetting who they are and about the little people, Garfield welcomes all that in his usual snarky manner. It's still played straight with Jon though, as really, he's afraid that his pets will forget about him.

* WesternAnimation/KimPossible never hunts for celebrity, ever. Even when she's at the X-Games competition and have enough MAD SKILLZ to own the entire competition, she just hunts for the villain. Compare this with [[IJustWantToBeSpecial Ron Stoppable]] who spent the entire episode becoming a famous jock just so he could get any ladies. She's impressed when a film producer plans to make a movie about her, but it doesn't seem to have occurred to her that her adventures would make good entertainment. Though despite all her [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld Saving the World experience]], Kim doesn't mind being featured on the cover of a random teen magazine for her cheerleading moves…

** The songs "The Way I Am" and "Don't Approach Me" (with Xzibit) are about the downsides to newfound wealth and fame. In fact, "Don't Approach Me" was less a song and basically the two artists ranting about their frustrations: stalkers, babymamadrama, greedy friends, etc.

Money makes life go around, and lots of people desire to be famous (hence, the proliferation of RealityTV shows). It seems only a complete imbecile would throw away a shot at money or fame.

However, characters who get their fame often regret it due to the problems it brings, and in certain series can even end up rejecting whatever brings them celebrity and wealth to embrace a more private lifestyle, even if it requires them to lose money as well.

* Music/FiveIronFrenzy had a couple of songs about this; further, Reese Roper, the band's singer and [[FaceOfTheBand frontman]], refused to indulge in some of the more egocentric trappings of celebrity, like signing autographs (this was also because he was the only one that ''all'' the fans could even name, let alone recognize, and he felt signing autographs himself took away attention from his equally talented bandmates).

** In the "Treehouse of Horror II" story "Lisa's Nightmare", the Simpsons use a monkey's paw to wish for fame and fortune. Everybody knows who they are [[SelfDeprecation but are sick of them]].
** In "That '90s Show", Homer tells about the time he became famous as the leader of the grunge band Sadgasm:

** Happens to Milhouse Van Houten in "Radioactive Man". He didn't really want to be Fallout Boy in the first place and simply got forced into it. As the episode goes on, Milhouse is just further and further disillusioned no matter how much Bart or anyone else tries to spin being a celebrity to him. Eventually, he quits the production and refuses to return, even after an impassioned speech by [[Creator/MickeyRooney Mickey Rooney]], and the film ultimately shuts down production for good.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' has [[ThePollyanna Jimmy]] becoming famous by coining a new CatchPhrase, with [[BigEater Beezy]] becoming his manager and [[EnfantTerrible Heloise]] his bodyguard. He likes it at first but quickly realizes he's mobbed whenever he goes outside, and he can't even go to the bathroom without attracting attention to himself.

* As the page quote demonstrates, Music/FiveIronFrenzy had a couple of songs about this; further, Reese Roper, the band's singer and [[FaceOfTheBand frontman]], refused to indulge in some of the more egocentric trappings of celebrity, like signing autographs (this was also because he was the only one that ''all'' the fans could even name, let alone recognize, and he felt signing autographs himself took away attention from his equally talented bandmates).

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Many celebrities state that this is TruthInTelevision and is often the cause of, or a major contributing factor in, a lot of the self-destructive behavior some exhibit. Even those who don't go out of their way to reduce their profile often find ways to avoid being in the limelight too much such as declining interviews where they can and avoiding social media.
* While Music/KurtCobain was aiming to be a successful musician, he probably wanted to be famous in the same way that most previous alternative rockers had been "famous", i.e. well-known in the alternative music scene but not in any way the mainstream. [[Music/{{Nirvana}} His band's]] huge success, ''way'' above what any other similar bands had reached, caused a lot of stress in his life, and it's believed to be a big part of why he [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]]. Although the fact he repeatedly went on Creator/{{MTV}} to decry the mainstream undercut his point slightly.
* Cat Stevens turned away from performing at the height of his career, left it behind, and embraced Islam. He later came back for a time under a new name, Yusuf Islam.
* UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington is an interesting example of this trope. As a young man, he hungered for military glory but eventually matured and settled for life as a gentleman planter. Then, of course, he got involved in politics, emerged from the Revolution, and found it almost more than he could handle.
* Creator/DaveChappelle famously walked away from ''Series/ChappellesShow'' on Comedy Central at the height of its popularity after becoming displeased with the working environment and some of the fans. After a sabbatical in South Africa, he returned to stand-up comedy but seems to have retired from anything high profile for good, and has publicly commented on his happiness living with his family on his farm in Ohio. In a 2019 Netflix special, Chappelle even mocked his own fans, saying that they will "hold things over his head for 10 or 15 years" and regarding anyone who still wants him to go back to something like ''Chappelle's Show'' as an UnpleasableFanbase.
* Creator/JDSalinger rued his fame brought by ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye''. He famously hid away and refused to even be interviewed for the last thirty years of his life.
* Music/EltonJohn is an interesting case. As reflected in an example above, he was an emotionally suppressed boy with an [[WellDoneSonGuy emotionally distant, strict father]] and a doting mother. The two parents divorced, but the effects of such a childhood scarred him for life. He was encouraged to only wear conservative clothing and be a banker and was discouraged from pursuing a career in rock and roll. Elton was shy, overweight, gap-toothed, played the relatively unhip instrument of piano, wore glasses (he didn't need them at first, but he idolized Music/BuddyHolly and wanted to wear glasses like Buddy, to the point that it damaged his vision) and was [[AmbiguouslyGay struggling with his homosexuality]]. Because of this, when he took on the "Elton" persona, he wore increasingly [[ImpossiblyCoolClothes flamboyant clothing]] and [[MakingASpectacleOfYourself glasses]] and acted outrageously, [[FreudianExcuse partly as a riposte to what his dad wanted him to be]] and to hide his insecurities. He took [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol]] to feel a part of the scene and open up, and because it felt good to him at first, they also fueled his sex drive. Later, the drugs, alcohol, depression, promiscuity, and bulimia caught up with him and nearly killed him. He enjoyed the celebrity, but could not cope with life away from celebrity, and often his being busy with albums and touring would, by WordOfGod, keep him from overdosing in his room alone and dying young. He cleaned up by the end of TheEighties and got his life back on track. He still, however, is very self-conscious about his looks [[WordOfGod and claims]] he hates having his picture taken and hates to make music videos, which might explain why by the beginning of TheOughties, he stopped appearing in them (or appears in a limited amount).
* [[Film/LawrenceOfArabia T. E. Lawrence]] spent several years between the wars trying to disappear.
* In one interview, Creator/DavidDuchovny and the host were discussing that actors would very much like to be athletes or rock stars, musicians would love to be athletes or actors and sportsmen would prefer to be actors or musicians. In another, he mentioned that though he enjoyed acting, it made him feel that it was not anything substantial like, say, scientists' contributions were.
* Creator/JakeLloyd, known as Anakin Skywalker from ''[[Film/ThePhantomMenace Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace]]'', retired from acting in 2002, saying that he suffered constant bullying from his classmates and the media over his role.
* Professional athletes have this as well. Tom Brady has made no secret of how much he dislikes the fishbowl he and his family have to live in. John Elway literally could not go anywhere in Colorado without drawing a mob, and after visiting Europe once he commented on how much he enjoyed being there and able to go anywhere with his family and not be recognized. Tiger Woods is a very private person who is in a profession that doesn't exactly lend itself to that. Like many of the other people listed here, there's a reason why they buy large mansions on vast estates...it's about the only place where they can get any privacy.
* Music/ElvisPresley used to rent an entire movie theater for a night, just to be able to relax and watch a movie without being bothered.
* Music/LaurynHill, after the smash success of her 1998 solo debut, ''Music/TheMiseducationOfLaurynHill'' (which to this day is put on many "Best Albums of the 20th Century"-type lists), walked away from the public eye. She claims that it is because she felt like she was unfairly being controlled by her record label and that she could not be herself as a celebrity. It didn't help that her actions afterward became increasingly odd, such as denouncing the Catholic church's history of child abuse ''at a Vatican benefit concert''.
* Creator/PaulScofield generally refused press interviews and rarely made public appearances off-stage (though he enjoyed meeting individual fans). When Scofield received an Oscar for ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons'', he refused to accept it in person. Nor did it change his attitude, as he turned down many of the resulting film offers that he felt were too high-profile.
* Creator/StephenKing has stated that he hates being famous due to his nervousness with crowds and a genuine lack of understanding of why people care about what he views as an uninteresting life. He even refuses to sign autographs (though he does participate in book signings). Given that he has often had people camping outside of his house and once had a mentally unstable woman break into his home and threaten his wife (this incident was one of the things that inspired ''Literature/{{Misery}}''), one can understand his unhappiness.
* Creator/MaraWilson was a [[FormerChildStar burgeoning child talent]] in TheNineties in movies like ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'', the 1994 remake of ''Film/MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet'' and the title role in ''Film/{{Matilda}}'', but during the making of ''Matilda'' her mother tragically died of breast cancer. Having already decided she didn't want to act for a living, her career slowed down with critical and commercial flops like ''Film/ASimpleWish'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends Thomas And The Magic Railroad]]''. She was typecast in "cutesy" roles while hoping for more substantial opportunities, she felt awkward as she grew up, and, as she later mentioned, she came to the conclusion that "film acting (wasn't) very fun". She left show business after ''Thomas'', went to a number of colleges in her new hometown of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, and now works as a playwright, runs [[http://www.marawilsonwritesstuff.com a popular blog online]] and volunteers for Publicolor, a not-for-profit organization that creates imaginative and colorful paint jobs for inner-city schools. When she does work in the public eye, it's in low-key independent productions (for example, she is the voice of The Faceless Old Woman Who Lives In Your House in ''PodCast/WelcomeToNightVale'' ) or writing for online platforms like Cracked.com.
* Creator/HowardHughes, famous aviator, businessman, and film director in the 1930s and 1940s became a total recluse for the next three decades of his life. In part, this was also a result of his mental problems and OCD.
* Music/CaptainBeefheart was a struggling musician for most of his productive career and despite his importance in the field of alternative music hardly sold any albums. In 1982, just when he received more critical attention and appreciation, he decided to quit the music industry altogether and lived as a recluse in his home near the Mojave Desert in California. He began a new career as a painter, but hardly gave any interviews anymore, nor did he appear in public for the last 28 years of his life.
* Music/SydBarrett recorded two albums with Music/PinkFloyd but then started to suffer from mental and drug problems. He released two bizarre CultClassic solo albums at the start of the 1970s and after that completely disappeared out of public view up until his death in 2006.
* Film director Creator/StanleyKubrick hardly appeared in public ever since he moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. He seldom gave interviews and refused to talk much about his work.
* Belgian comic strip artist Pom of the comic book series ''ComicBook/PietPienterEnBertBibber'' lived as a cranky recluse for most of his life. He didn't want to be bothered by anyone, refused most interviews and even book signing sessions. He had such a CreatorBacklash about his past career that he told every visitor that he would rather die than be constantly reminded about it.
* Hollywood actress Creator/GretaGarbo is perhaps the best illustration of this trope. She became the most famous actress of the first half of the 20th century, but refused all publicity and interviews, thus making her more mysterious and glamorous as a result. At the height of her fame, in the 1940s, she quit acting altogether and appeared totally out of public view for the final 40 years of her life. She kept the press at a distance and photographing old age Garbo became something of a challenge for journalists since hardly anyone knew what she looked like by this point.
* Hollywood legend Creator/MarlonBrando is another example of someone who refused to be part of the Hollywood star system. Despite being world-famous, Brando constantly rebelled against directors, producers, and executives who wanted to work with him, and thus reached a point that only the bravest or naïve directors wanted to collaborate with him. But Brando didn't care. In his final years, he spent most of his spare time on a private island in Polynesia and hardly appeared in public anymore. His only public appearance in decades occurred when his son Christian Brando was put on trial for murder.
* Famous chess player Bobby Fischer became a sensation at the start of the 1970s when he won an Olympic tournament. Immediately after he became a recluse and even disassociated himself from the United States altogether.
* After his wife died, Creator/RickMoranis retired from acting in 1997 to raise his kids, who were then toddlers. He also expressed his discontentment with Hollywood.
* Notch, the original developer behind ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', sold Mojang to Microsoft and left the company precisely because he felt he doesn't want to be a symbol "responsible for something huge that [he] doesn’t understand, that [he] doesn’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to [him]" (said "symbol" being his fame for developing Minecraft).
* Roger Hodgson of Music/{{Supertramp}} left the band, quit touring, and led a relatively low profile in TheEighties and TheNineties to raise a family and settle down. He also felt alienated by fame, the music industry, and playing more and more tightly choreographed shows to less and less intimate audiences as their fame increased with ''Breakfast In America'' in the late 1970s.
* Part of the reasons for the breakup (and non-reunion) of short-lived [[TheNineties 1990's]] PowerPop band Music/{{Jellyfish}} were, as keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning Jr. [[WordOfGod later mentioned]], to do with vocalist/drummer Andy Sturmer's unease with fame and the attention that comes with it. Sturmer felt more comfortable being creative in the studio than he did as the frontman of a rock group. His music scoring, session singing, and production/songwriting work are more out of the spotlight than with Jellyfish.
* Adam Duritz of Music/CountingCrows struggled with the fame brought on by their hit album ''August and Everything After''. Many of the songs on their next album ''Recovering the Satellites'' have lyrics dealing with this.
* While Music/RobbieWilliams is still an active performer and one of the most famous pop stars in the world, he makes his home in the United States ''precisely'' because [[AmericansHateTingle it's the one place in the world where he's not a megastar,]] letting him live anonymously and provide a normal life for his family.
* When Creator/AAMilne wrote the ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' books, he based the character Christopher Robin on his then-four-year-old son, Christopher Robin Milne. As he grew up, C. R. Milne came to hate being associated with and eventually being overshadowed by his fictional namesake. He never really recovered; he was relentlessly bullied in school, his father had poor parenting skills and was distant towards him, and he felt his father had exploited him. It was only just before he died at the age of 75 that he reported that he could look at the ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' books without flinching.
* Creator/RoseMcGowan in her autobiography ''Brave'' describes the early 2000s as especially traumatic for her because of this. Thanks to newfound fame from ''{{Series/Charmed 1998}}'' (she had only done indie films and ''{{Film/Scream 1996}}'' beforehand) and new camera phone technology, she wasn't prepared to be swarmed by fans whenever she went out. One day she went to visit the Vatican City and got chased by a mob of people, one of whom ripped a chunk of her hair out. She also ended up with massive body image issues, dieting excessively to look like women in magazines, and spending ridiculous amounts of money on a stylist that made her "look like a plastic weirdo" to fit the Hollywood standards of beauty.
* [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Harry]] has never hidden his hatred of the paparazzi that has hounded him all of his life, blaming them--not unjustifiably--for his mother's death, a hatred that ramped up even more when their harassment of his wife made her suicidal [[PapaWolf along with openly racist attacks against their newborn children]]. This ended up being one of the main reasons for them stepping down from their royal status in 2020, instead opting for a much quieter and private life in Southern California.
* Dong Nguyen, creator of ''VideoGame/FlappyBird'', only created the game to be as simple as possible, but the game turned out to be a massive hit and addictive game, topping the charts and bringing a lot of press to Nguyen's home. Unable to take the pressure of being the famed creator of such a game, Dong Nguyen then made the decision to pull ''Flappy Bird'' from the stores and not bask in the popularity and riches he could get just so he could resume his simple life of an indie game developer with his family again. He still makes games, but he makes sure that they won't end up as addictive as ''Flappy Bird'' again.
* This trope was one of the primary reasons for Creator/LindsayEllis' retirement from content creation in late 2021, explaining that the success she brought herself from her longtime online career wasn't worth all the harassment and general negativity she had to endure. She has since chosen to focus on her literature career instead, though has remarked in mid-2022 that she may have to return to social media for the sake of marketing her books.
-->"I can’t make content period. I just can’t do this anymore. There is no healing as long as there is attachment to the thing that makes you suffer, and the thing in this case is being in the public eye at all."
* Creator/JoshHartnett cites this as the reason he ultimately left Hollywood.
-->"I was on the cover of every magazine. I couldn't really go anywhere. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. I was alone."
* Music/{{Sia}} hated the fame and attention towards her when she released her fifth album ''We Are Born'' in 2010, with her constant touring and growing popularity taking an extreme toll on her mental health. After nearly taking her own life, she decided to step out of the spotlight and try her hand at behind-the-scenes work such as songwriting. However, her collaborations with Music/DavidGuetta and Music/FloRida unexpectedly blew up, prompting Sia to [[TheFaceless come up with a face-concealing wig]] gimmick and becoming a [[invoked]] ReclusiveArtist, allowing her to continue releasing music but avoid a celebrity lifestyle.
* Many people who [[FifteenMinutesOfFame who find themselves in the spotlight suddenly]] have this reaction, often being seriously uncomfortable with the attention even if they may have enjoyed it at first. It can be because they are known for something they aren't very proud of or want to be associated with (as has been the experience of many survivors of traumatic incidents such as mass shootings or natural disasters) because they did something noble or heroic but [[HumbleHero don't think they deserve praise for what they feel anyone would've done]], because they find themselves the victim of conspiracy theories or online hatred or simply because they're private people who don't like others digging into their lives nor do they like being the centre of attention in general. Many experience a sense of deep relief when everyone stops paying attention to them and they can return to their normal lives without the intense scrutiny.
[[/folder]]

* An episode of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' is focused on this. To elaborate: When Doraemon and Nobita discover an IdolSinger napping in secret while she's hiding, they, after waking her up and agreeing to her request to keep her location a secret, invite her to their house so she can rest more comfortably. When she expresses her wish for someone else to trade places with her due to her sheer workload, [[FreakyFridayFlip Nobita, with the help of a gadget from Doraemon, swap bodies with her]]. Soon after receiving the loving attention he craves, however, he's joined by the IdolSinger's StageMom, who puts such an intense amount of work on "her" that he quickly wishes to be turned back to normal. [[note]] Once Doraemon finds him, they use the same [[AppliedPhlebotinum gadget]] to have Nobita and the singer's mother swap bodies, freeing Nobita from the workload while also giving the singer's mother some LaserGuidedKarma (TheShowMustGoOn, after all). After the singer has had her share of rest and relaxation, they locate her mother, who has sneaked away due to the amount of workload, and, upon meeting Doraemon, Nobita, and the singer, apologizes for the sheer amount of pressure she has put upon her daughter. The episode ends with everyone being returned to his/her own body and the singer's mother promising never to push her daughter this hard again.[[/note]]

* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', Minako actually passes her idol singer audition at one point, but chooses to remain with her friends (and continue fighting the BigBad) rather than pursue her dream of becoming an idol singer.

* ''Film/CountryStrong'' revolves around the country music industry. The protagonist is an alcoholic diva who has constant mental health problems because of the pressures of fame, as well as her collapsing marriage to her manager. The film has her marking a comeback tour [[spoiler: but she then suicides at the end]]. There's also conflict between two supporting characters - a beauty queen launching a mainstream career, and a country singer content to just play at small bars without fame. Three guesses which one we're meant to side with.

--> '''Deborah:''' If it makes you feel any better, I have a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics, and I spend my entire life worrying about whether Mel C is wearing the right [[ProductPlacement Nike Air Max]]. Mind you, I'd rather be us than the girls. Fame is such a fickle thing.

* Inverted ''Series/{{Friends}}'' where Joey, an aspiring actor, who absolutely basks in his celebrity status when he is successful.
* ''Series/{{Extras}}'' plays with this; Andy Millman spends the first series yearning to be famous, only to find it's not all he hoped for in the second series and the Christmas special. However, it's more what he's famous ''for'' that bothers him (a cheap comedy show riddled with detrimental - in his eyes - ExecutiveMeddling and broad humor he doesn't appreciate) than being famous itself, which is something he continues to yearn for. It's also noted by several people that he's more than a little bit ungrateful and hypocritical about it, since he clearly looks down on the general public whose acceptance he nevertheless pathetically craves, he'll spend hours [[{{Wangst}} whining]] about having to sell out to be famous only to turn around and eagerly sell out even more in order to keep up his public profile, and he's constantly looking down on other celebrities and sneering at them for being more famous for less reason when really, he's just jealous.

* Also shown in the ''Series/Numb3rs'' episode "Obsession", where singer Skyler Wyatt (Creator/SamaireArmstrong) is shown to be unhappy with paparazzi trying to get photos of her, sayings she was more happy in her own hometown where they treat her like a regular person, and also has to deal with the fact that her husband is having an affair with his co-star.

* "Under and Over it" By Five Finger Death Punch has shades of this with lyrics like

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Braceface}}'', "The Good Life", explores this when Sharon and her friends are chosen by a Music Star, Leena, to be in her newest Music Video. Sharon sees first-hand that, contrary to her fantasies about stardom being glamorous and luxurious, Leena's star life is miserable. She can't eat whatever she wants to eat, the media always gossips about her, she's homesick for her sister, and her overprotective bodyguard treats everyone ''she'' approaches like a stalker. In the end, Sharon lampshades it herself.

** Probably the most notable time was in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E12BartGetsFamous Bart Gets Famous]]" when Bart became the 'I-Didn't-Do-It Boy'. Bart at first loves the fame and attention it gets him, but eventually gets sick of the fact that he's treated as a one-trick pony. He goes on a talk show, having actually researched current events so he could have something to talk about, but [[Creator/ConanOBrien the host]] only wants him to say the line and nothing else. Marge tells him that even if he hates it, he at least has the ability to make people happy which makes his fame worthwhile. Bart is encouraged by this, but ironically, his fame dies out when the people lose interest in the fad.
** Parodied towards the end of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E24Homerpalooza Homerpalooza]]", when Homer becomes famous as a carnival freak who withstands cannonballs to his stomach, but is urged to stop by [[OpenHeartDentistry a veternarian]] because it's damaging his body. During his final show, Homer dodges the cannonball, losing his fans.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' has [[ThePollyanna Jimmy]] becoming famous by coining a new CatchPhrase, with [[BigEater Beezy]] becoming his manager and [[EnfantTerrible Heloise]] his bodyguard. He likes it at first, but quickly realizes he's mobbed whenever he goes outside, and he can't even go to the bathroom without attracting attention to himself.

* Happens to Fluttershy in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Green Isn't Your Color" when she briefly becomes a famous fashion model. The ShrinkingViolet quickly grows to hate the spotlight, but keeps it up because Rarity is being so supportive. (Rarity, meanwhile, is being so supportive because she's [[GreenEyedMonster fighting back envy]] and feels ashamed about it.)

* Music/SydBarrett recorded two albums with Music/PinkFloyd, but then started to suffer from mental and drug problems. He released two bizarre CultClassic solo albums at the start of the 1970s and after that completely disappeared out of public view up until his death in 2006.