This woman should not be famous, but she is

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems standards of fame are declining. Back in Andy Warhol’s day, everyone got fifteen minutes; in the YouTube era, it’s down to five.

Maybe that’s just as well, because nowadays it’s possible to be famous for anything, no matter how stupid or pointless. As in the case of Clare Werbeloff, a nineteen-year-old from Sydney’s northern beaches who offered Nine News the following as she reported on a shooting that she had witnessed in King’s Cross, the sleazy throbbing heart of nightlife in the city:

“There were these two wogs fighting. The fatter wog said to the skinnier wog: `Oi bro, you slept with my cousin’. And the other one said: ‘Nah man, I didn’t for shit, eh’ and the other one goes: ‘I will call on my fully sick boys, eh’. And then pulled out a gun and went chk-chk boom!”

Chk-Chk Boom. As she uttered those immortal words, her career was launched. Soon, more than a 100 000 people had viewed her on the ninemsn website, with up to 3 000 hits an hour. Within 24 hours of the video appearing, some enterprising soul started marketing Chk-Chk Boom T-shirts, coffee mugs and beer mugs on a US website. There’s a YouTube dance video, and Ms Werbeloff has hired a PR agent. She’s scheduled to appear on A Current Affair, the Australian equivalent of Carte Blanche.

All of this within the space of a week.

And — get this — all thanks to a complete and utter lie. As it turns out, she is a “bogus bogan”: it seems that she never actually witnessed the event in question. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported:

“We have interviewed her and she has not witnessed the shooting,” said acting King’s Cross Police crime manager, Detective Inspector Matt McQueen. “She has admitted to making it all up and has not witnessed the shooting.”

(You have to love official Australian police-speak, which is always in the ever-present. Say what you like about them, but they live in the moment.)

Why is this stupid, racist young woman famous? Does she deserve to be known? “She’s a hottie,” is my husband’s explanation. He enjoyed the video. Watched it twice.

As for me, all I can hope is that she returns to the obscurity she so richly deserves.