Stephen Goddard, a 23 year old sexual-health educator from Nottingham, is a self-confessed desperate wannabe. He describes himself as a beautiful diamond, deeply buried in the ground that has not been discovered yet. When I ask if he has any idea who will dig this diamond up, he says: Anyone who can polish it up nicely! He has the gift of the gab - hes clever (Ive got an IQ of 161, one of the highest in the country), eloquent - and its all focused on a single objective: fame.
Stephen sees fame as his raison detre. And like many hopefuls, the I want to be famous sentence stops right there. Being famous for something just isn't necessary in his rather longing eyes.. He wants - sorry, needs like the air - to be famous so I can show people what I am. Fame is literally what I live for. Sometimes I feel like I am dying without it. Im not really designed for an ordinary job, working with ordinary people. I cannot verbalise how determined I am to become famous. I want to be in the Encyclopaedia, in The Guinness Book of Records, I want to be the essential part of someones music collection. I want to have won awards, be
In September Misty was selected to feature in a Sunday Times article about the desire to be famous. She was taken to London fashion week to attend the GQ awards party at Harvey Nichols where photographs were taken and the interview was conducted. Below are photographs of the article and the wording as it appeared.
recognised, acknowledged. I want to be at the top of every single tree. Stephen is convinced there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. And what meets the eye is this: a slightly built young man with a cutesy look that reminds you of the sweet-looking one in boy-bands, put there to secure the pocket-money spending of 8-10 year-old girls on the bands records and merchandise.
Stephen loves publicity stunts and dresses as a woman, Misty, to get more attention. He once called all the tabloids pretending to be a friend of a pre-op transsexual who had made the final line-up of Big Brother. He then leaked the address to reporters (his own, of course) and the next day paparazzi and reporters were clamouring for his (made up) story. It was absolutely wild! he says. He has the newspaper cuttings on his bedroom walls at home. Another time, Stephen hired a cherry-picker truck for 200 and convinced his friend to lower him down into the Big Brother garden. Just as he was dangling, to the strains of Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" the police cars arrived to take him down to the station.
Stephen is desperate to get onto reality-TV. Big Brother, Pop Idol, The X Factor - Ive tried to get on every game and reality-TV show. Every single one.
For the hundreds of auditions he has spent so much money and time on, his total minutes of fame are still fewer than the Andy Warhol quota. But what is so striking about him is his tenacity: when faced with rejection he will just pester them like crazy. Once, after failing a reality-TV audition, he left 500 messages on a TV producers answering machine.
Why he gets turned down, nobody ever seems to say. Still, Stephen has a close, loving family (his mum gives him her hand-me-downs for Mistys wardrobe) who support him 100% in his quest for fame. They all knew about his pre-op transsexual hoax, and they all sit and watch him whenever hes on TV.
He is not in a relationship and says he would only consider one if it would further my career. He lives at home, and spends his free time "singing into my Dictaphone for hours on end and documenting every last detail of my life in scrapbooks". Thats going to make it a lot
easier for your biographer I say. Yes, he replies seriously, Ive fitted in so much. I need a book written about me. If chutzpah and self-belief could make you famous, Stephen would be laughing.
Susannah Price.
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