Forget about the cars you see the movie stars drive in movies and those you see the musicians jump in and out in music videos, they are mostly not theirs—the reality of life is far from the on-screen glamour.
All around the world, celebrities live beyond their means and this has brought bankruptcy knocking at the door of many. For instance, Toni Braxton, the beautiful R&B star and a six-time Grammy winner who sole more than 40 million albums has declared bankruptcy twice- in 1998 and 2010. And interestingly, Mike Tyson who made more than $300 million in his legendary boxing career was reported to have a debt of $27 million during a 2003 bankruptcy hearing.
Celebrities like Latoya Jackson, Mc Hammer and several others have in the past filed for bankruptcy and you definitely know who to blame—Mr. Living beyond their means.
Here in Ghana, our fast developing pop culture demands that celebrities pull themselves beyond the ordinary—with many confusing this for delusional lifestyles, the road map to living beyond their means and unnecessary bragging.
Those of us behind the scenes who hold regular interactions with some of these celebrities know that, not all that glitters is gold—-and the constant bragging is giving some of these celebrities sleepless night. But will they ever stop doing so?
Even if those with millions of dollars were led by the celebrity high lifestyle to the extent that they got broke, how much our ‘juvenile celebrities’ who sometimes even work for no payments?
With increasing number of platforms like twitter, Instagram and facebook for our celebrities to brag and showcase their glamorous lifestyles though unaffordable, many are going to unimaginable length just to score status point—claiming to be what they are not, claiming to have what they do not have and claiming to see what they have not seen.
It is therefore not shocking that, fake designer bags, watches and dresses have become trending images both in the real and virtual world of our Ghanaian celebrities.
Without enough coming in to support the exponential lifestyle, most of our celebrities are left with 3 real options; live beyond your means, swindle someone into funding your high lifestyle or continue bragging and pray that you are never caught.
Our industry is unimaginably young and unable to support the flamboyant lifestyles we catch the western celebrities living but we seem to have never heard of “cut your coat according to your size” and persuasively, we are living a dream life with unending consequence such as embarrassment and turning ourselves into preachers of falsehood.