15 minutes of fame
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
First appears c. 1968, although a use in French appears as early as 1821 in Histoire de l'Assemblée constituante by Charles Lacretelle. Often misattributed to Andy Warhol, in a catalogue of an exhibition of his art in Stockholm: “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
15 minutes of fame pl (plural only)
- (idiomatic) A very short time in the spotlight or brief flurry with fame, after which the person or subject involved is quickly forgotten.
- 2007, Nigel Hamilton, Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency, New York: PublicAffairs, →ISBN, page 274:
- […] Paula [Jones] was, even to her lawyers, a loose cannon—as prepared to risk her marriage and her well-being to get the president to confess his original sin as she was intent on making big money and getting her fifteen minutes of fame.
- 2014, Kip Harding, Mona Lisa Harding, chapter 19, in The Brainy Bunch […] , Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 188:
- By the time we went to Central Park, someone walking in the park said they had just seen us on Fox that morning. It was like being a rock star with a whole fifteen minutes of fame. So it was fun for a time.
- 2016 January 31, Anna Williamson, “The flip side of instant fame”, in The Guardian[2]:
- After just a month on television, this ordinary chap from Catford, south London, was an overnight superstar, ready to milk his 15 minutes of fame.
- 2022 April 27, Jennifer Schuessler, “An Heir, a $25 Million Giveaway and 30,000 Unopened Letters”, in The New York Times[3], →ISSN:
- One day in early January 1970, Michael James Brody Jr. stepped off a Pan Am jet at John F. Kennedy Airport and into what would be one of the new decade’s shortest, strangest 15 minutes of fame.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
fifteen minutes of fame
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