Boyle's Now a Prisoner of Her Own Fame

Singer can't fade into obscurity like author Harper Lee
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 1, 2010 1:25 PM CDT
Boyle's Now a Prisoner of Her Own Fame
Singer Susan Boyle from Scotland performs as she makes a guest appearance in a concert of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, April 1, 2010.   (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

It's been exactly 1 year since Susan Boyle's star-making turn on Britain's Got Talent , and the singer is now crazy famous—but she doesn't seem to be enjoying it much. Friends say Boyle's suffered a breakdown and doesn't enjoy her celebrity, writes Ben Macintyre for the Times of London. She fears she'll be dropped by her label, and she hasn't even moved into the new house she bought.

It's ironic, writes Macintyre, because this summer also marks the 50th anniversary of the great To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's lone book. Lee managed to get off the fame carousel as quickly as she could, and she faded into quiet obscurity. “The celebrity industry would not permit that today,” he writes. “The Faustian pact demands that privacy be surrendered in return for fame, and success must be repeated endlessly, until failure comes along." (More To Kill A Mockingbird stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X