Used star lot: Warmed-over celebs finding a home all over cable, network TV

Kirk Baird

Monday, July 25, 2005 | 8:32 a.m.

Considering what passes for celebrity on TV these days, having "former" on the resume must be a requirement.

Cases in point: Trista Sutter, Rachel Hunter, Kelly Monaco, Joey McIntyre, Evander Holyfield and John O'Hurley, the "stars" of ABC's surprise summer reality hit, "Dancing With the Stars."

Or, as I like to think of the group: a former reality show contestant (Sutter), a former supermodel (Hunter) a former Playmate (Monaco), a former singer in a boy band (McIntyre), a former boxing champ (Holyfield) and a former minor character on "Seinfeld" (O'Hurley).

The definition of celebrity (someone who's well known) is broad. While the definition of star (a prominent actor or actress) is considerably more restricted.

Still, pawning Sutter off as even a minor celebrity, considering her only claim to fame is as a single woman searching for a mate on the matchmaking reality show, "The Bachelorette," seems to be a disservice to C-listers everywhere.

Even 1970s game shows, notorious for the use of low-level celebrities, had standards.

Think what you will of Charles Nelson Reilly, but the comic-actor had been working steadily on TV for more than a decade before he landed his regular role on "Match Game."

The same goes for Paul Lynde, who was a respected comedian before his center-square appearances on "Hollywood Squares."

And actress Fannie Flagg, also a frequent celebrity on "Match Game," among other daytime game shows, went on to become an acclaimed writer: "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" and "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!"

Today, with the popularity of reality TV and the country's obsession with celebrities, networks are scrambling to find ways to combine the two.

The result often finds the producers of these shows "Dancing With the Stars," "Celebrity Boxing," "The Surreal Life," "Celebrity Mole" and "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" scraping the bottom of the celebrity barrel for so-called stars, including these questionably famous names:

Tonya Harding.

Paula Jones.

Corey Feldman.

Kim Coles.

"Downtown" Julie Brown.

Cris Judd.

"Stuttering" John Melendez.

Dennis Rodman.

Joey Buttafuoco.

We've gone from a hierarchy of A-, B- and even C-list celebs, to a categorization that spans the alphabet.

As stupefying as it is to consider Joey Buttafuoco a celebrity, perhaps the biggest farce is the inclusion of celebrity reality show participants as "stars."

It's the ultimate act of network cannibalism, as reality TV feeds upon itself by recycling such names as Trishelle Cannatella ("Real World Las Vegas," "Surreal Life"), Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth ("The Apprentice," "Surreal Life") and Jerri Manthey ("Survivor," "Surreal Life.")

(The idea that, most likely, more Americans can identify Omarosa than their state senators is also pretty telling, but best left for another story.)

The trend isn't likely to disappear anytime soon, either.

Reality TV programming is cheap to produce -- serving as great summer TV filler -- and draws sizable audiences.

And there is no lack of contestants.

Reality-show hopefuls by the thousands continue to audition for "Survivor," "The Apprentice" and "American Idol."

Although winning the show's grand prize is a bonus, most contestants know that, by simply being memorable on the show, they can parlay the TV exposure into a makeshift celebrity career.

"This is the only way a person with absolutely no experience in the entertainment or talent industry can become a star in a hit television series overnight," said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.

That overnight success can go a long way.

The Osbourne offspring, Jack and Kelly, for example, continue to get the red-carpet treatment at premieres, even though their reality TV series has been off the air for more than a year.

While Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich used their status as a celebrity reality-show couple from "Survivor: All-Stars" to land on the spring edition of "The Amazing Race" followed by a TV special on their nuptials, "Rob and Amber Get Married."

The trouble for these reality-show celebs is they most often don't have the talent necessary to maintain their "star" status.

In the case of Richard Hatch, the former corporate trainer milked his victory on the first "Survivor" for all he could, appearing on TV and radio talk shows, guest appearances on sitcoms and games shows -- even returning for "Survivor: All-Stars."

Just as quickly, Hatch has disappeared from the public eye, save for his troubles earlier this year with the IRS for tax evasion.

"The problem was, he was only good at one thing, being on the first installment of 'Survivor,' " Thompson said. "He didn't turn out to be a good host, he is not funny and he didn't even turn out to be good at playing 'Survivor' a second time.

"He became famous for being really good on a reality show."

In today's celeb-driven times, Andy Warhol's decades-old quote about everyone getting their 15 minutes of fame in the future is often referenced.

But the percentage of celebrities and non-celebrities indicate that simply isn't the case, Thompson said.

For every William Hung, who is famous for his off-key singing, there are 150,000 off-key singers, he said.

Besides, the very definition of celebrity -- being famous -- means there has to be a counterpoint, the non-celebrity or unfamous population.

As Thompson said: "Everybody can't be famous for 15 minutes."

Perhaps not.

After seeing the caliber of celebrities on "Dancing With the Stars," it only seems that way.