Kings Cross Clare’s 15-minutes start now

Andy Warhol’s quote about everyone having their 15 minutes of fame was rather prophetic considering he said it years before the internet took hold. I reckon if he knew what was to come he may have changed the figure to 15 seconds, such is the way normal people are thrust into the online limelight and then cast aside as soon as the next big thing shows itself.

The latest big thing is a woman named Clare Werbeloff, who witnessed a shooting in Kings Cross at the weekend and described what she saw to a Channel 9 cameraman – see video below, it’s one of the funniest vox pops you’ll see.

In case you can’t watch the video Clare provides excellent attention to detail, complete with accents: “There were these two wogs fighting,” she told the Nine cameraman. “The fatter wog said to the skinnier wog, ‘Oi bro, you slept with my cousin’.

“And the other one said ‘Nah man, I didn’t for shit, eh’ and the other one goes, ‘I will call on my fully sick boys, eh’. “And then [he] pulled out a gun and went chuck, chuck BOOM. ” – honestly, if you can watch the video!!!

This happened in the early hours of Sunday May 17 – four days ago.

Since then, according to this follow up story on NineMSN, she has become an internet star, with a Facebook fan page with almost 5000 members. You can even buy t-shirts and cups with her quotes in the front* – buy the time they arrive we’ll be onto someone else. Of course, she has a PR company managing her. All for being rather frank about a crime she witnessed four nights ago.

Fair enough. If she can make something out of this good luck to her, though it’s worth remembering someone got shot here.

But will she make anything out of it, apart from maybe a Zoomagazine photoshoot? It may sound rather ironic, but what happens when normal people do something that memes to the point where merchandise is sold? Do they have any rights to their intellectual (there’s the irony) property?

Early this year one poor fucker enjoyed quarter-hour cult status (ooh I like that) because he looks like a thumb. Can he claim for any profits from merchandise sold with his likeness? It would make for a very interesting test case if he tried.

*Interestingly, in their haste to pump the t-shirts out the makers actually misquoted her. Instead of saying “‘I will call on my fully sick boys, eh” it says on the merchandise “‘I will call on my 46 boys, eh”. FAIL.

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