Occasionally I read something that intrigues me. Somewhere amid the last months reading which spans a book on droving in Australia through to Vanity Fair (apologies I can’t attribute), I came across an article on the late great actress Sarah Bernhardt (c. October 23, 1844 – March 26, 1923) to read about her life go to http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/bernhardt001.html . What interested me apart from her fascinating life and career, was the little known fact that she slept in a coffin. It is said that she was the most famous actress the world had/has known and that she was very aware of her own celebrity and how to court celebrity: hence the coffin. Call it a means of ensuring intrigue, obsession with one’s own continued success, or as pointed out by psychologists, insecurity. Either way the world has had its fair share of celebrities that seem to need props.  Michael Jackson had his monkey (Okay so maybe not a very good example as the current school of thought is that the boy in the bubble and the monkey really could relate to each other) hey, I’m an MJ fan http://www.michaeljackson.com/au/home  and Lady Ga Ga http://www.ladygaga.com/sldn/  comes to mind. She sure can sing but has in herself become a gimmick with the clothes she chooses to wear. I guess at least she owns the look (I wonder if her mother asks where the child named Stefani Germanotta is?). I can think of others that have consciously decided to step above their competition in a variety of different fields with everything from overt plastic surgery to keeping reptiles. Is it an indication of how desperate people are to stay on top with the masses or have the masses always demanded more of celebrities? Andy Warhol once said that every celebrity needed a prop. There are many that don’t. Which I guess goes to prove that you usually need talent to achieve in your chosen profession. Staying there, depending on your level of success and industry is a totally different matter.