THE octo-spectacle just won’t go away. And instead of running from the limelight, Octomom Nadya Suleman and her cast of characters have thrust themselves head-on into the circling, hungry maw of the 24/7 TV-cable- radio-Internet-Twitter news cycle. Suleman’s media juggernaut reached new highs this week, starting on Monday with her ex-boyfriend, who tearfully went on national TV to demand a paternity test. It continued with her father on “The Oprah Winfrey Show , ” accusing his daughter of being “irresponsible” and questioning her mental state. At one point he asked the talk show queen, “Will you help?” But it didn’t stop there. Radar unleashed videos online over four days, including tours of the family’s cramped house and a “video showdown” between Suleman and her mother. At one point, Angela Suleman called her daughter “obsessive compulsive.” Sister programmes “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider” touted their own “exclusive,” also stretching their shared interview out over five days. Dr Phil devoted last Wednesday and Thursday to “octomania” — he now totals five episodes in two weeks — and managed to curry enough favour with Suleman to become her confidant: When Kaiser Permanente hospital officials questioned her ability to take care of the octuplets, Dr Phil was the doctor she called in distress.
Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred entered the fray, offering Suleman a house and 24-hour nursing care for the octuplets. And two pornography studios made duelling overtures: Vivid Entertainment offered Suleman up to $1 million to star in a movie, while Pink Visual said it would give her a year’s worth of diapers to turn down Vivid. “You can’t point to a TV show right now that has a better plot than Octomom,” said Janice Min, editor in chief of Us Weekly, which features Suleman on its current cover with an eight-page spread inside. “We have someone who is living her own national reality show for the cameras. ... The story has every element that scripted TV would die for. Dysfunctional family, public feuding with the mother ... the plastic surgery, the Angelina Jolie comparisons.
... Now there’s a baby-daddy mystery.” TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin is more blunt: “Octomom is crazy. People like crazy. Crazy is more interesting than boring. It’s that simple.” Suleman’s celebrity status is the product of the round-the-clock news cycle. The messy details of Suleman’s family life have propelled her to even greater notoriety and at least some measure of fortune, rather than making people turn away.
Even the neighbours are making news. One frustrated shotgun-wielding resident of Suleman’s block in Whittier burst out of his home this week shouting at the media congregated outside. Nadya Suleman has repeatedly said she doesn’t want all the publicity. But it is she — and her parents — who have kept the story unfolding.
Instead of shuttering themselves away, the family has agreed to exclusive after exclusive.
“People are always complaining about the paparazzi, but if you really want to keep your life private, you can keep your life private,” said Elayne Rapping, a professor of American studies at the State University of New York, Buffalo, who specialises in pop culture. In a world of gossip blogs and YouTube, the public is also helping to keep the story alive. More than 50 Facebook groups have been formed, both pro and con.