Thy Fifteen Minutes Are Up
Monday, July 21st by scott malia
In people-who-need-to-go-away news, the alleged Shakespeare thief appears to be milking his fifteen minutes for all that they are worth. As mentioned in a previous blog, amateur collector Raymond Scott was arrested on suspicion of having stolen a copy of the First Folio from a university a decade ago. While he has maintained his innocence throughout, he does not seem to be bothered by the notoriety it is offering him. In fact, the media’s desire to paint Scott as an affected kook has received no greater supporter than Scott himself. Indeed, the man seems to delight in the revelations of his peculiar behavior because it affords him the opportunity to explain it away.
Truly, I cannot imagine why this man is getting the attention he so desperately craves, even in the age of anyone-regardless-talent-or-appeal-can-be-famous-for-a-nanosecond. Still, here I am writing about him, aren’t I? Paris Hilton must be fuming mad right now. Why go to the trouble of leaking a tacky sex tape or getting arrested for a DUI when all she had to do was toss a Folio into her Prada bag next to that obnoxious dog she carries around everywhere and run to the police saying, “Look what I stole!” In the mean time, we’re stuck with this Howard-Hughes-by-way-of-Crispin-Glover weirdo engaged in an ongoing audition for a reality show that could be titled The Shakespeare Borrowers. Even if he didn’t take the book, can’t we arrest him for being annoying?
