(4 of 4)
Essany's show and the others raise the question, What is the tipping point at which a real person becomes a persona, or vice versa? And is that transformation worth the glare of reality-show cameras? Feldman isn't sure; he's so mad at the media and the WB--which for some reason, he says, depicted him and his housemates as has-beens--that he has written a song about the matter, which he plans to put on a rerelease of his 2002 album, Former Child Actor. Then again, The Surreal Life is probably the only reason you know Feldman had a 2002 album. As for Manthey, she wants to parlay Surreal Life into an acting role in old-fashioned fiction television. "It's pilot-casting season," she says, "and there's been renewed interest in me because of the show." Reality may have changed the rules of celebrity, but the big dream is still the same: to become a true star, so hot and bright that you never have to worry about being real again.