Fifteen Minutes: Losing the Britney Barbie
In theater, there is no such thing as a small part. But, when a bigger part comes a calling, no actor is humble or stupid enough to turn down their fleeting chance to shine. On a recent episode of MTV's Total Request Live, Suzanne Guy '02 snatched up this theatrical opportunity and made the spotlight her own. TRL has converted Carson Daly into a household name so why not Suzanne Guy.
As an audience member of the show, Suzanne didn't anticipate much camera time. But, she was soon selected to participate, along with one other audience member, in a musical trivia contest. Fame was in the making. The topic of trivia--Britney Spears.
In a fierce competition between two, Suzanne answered the first trivia question correctly, guessing that Spears had been looking to buy a house in England based on rumors of a lascivious relationship with Prince William. "I heard she was talking to Prince William over the internet, so I took a guess, but the other guy in the contest got it right, too," Guy said.
In the tie-breaking question, the two competitors were asked how many musical awards Brittney received in the last twelve months. Guy guessed five while her opponent upped the ante to seven. Both grossly underestimated the musical prowess of this "crazy" teen heart-throb who boosts 21 musical accolades in this past year alone. Guy, being farther off the mark, watched the grand prize slip right out of her reach: a signed Britney Spears doll.
Although she went home empty-handed, she did experience the magic of seeing Brittney Spears up close. But seeing Brittney up close is easier said the done. "She wears a lot of make up," Guy noted. "She's short and has really nice teeth."
Luckily, Guy's new fame hasn't gone unnoticed. At softball practice, a stranger stopped her to exclaim, "Hey, weren't you on TV?" Overall, Guy says, the experience was thrilling but exhausting: "They make you scream all the time. It's tiring. Thirty seconds of clapping is a lot more than it seems," Guy says. And her biggest regret? "My mom told me to take my gum out before I went on. I was so mad I didn't."
--A.C. Van Der Zee