Attempts by regular people to be on the public eye, have ranged from silly, i.e.: Heidi & Spencer Pratt (“Speidi”), from MTV’s The Hills, having a fake wedding in Mexico, to irresponsible, i.e.: the balloon boy hoax and lately, with the Virginia couple who crashed a White House dinner, has even exposed flaws on the Secret Service. These hoaxes may start silly and innocent enough, but it makes you wonder what would the next fame hungry person will do to make a name for themselves? They can only up the amp.

One thing all these cases have in common is that they all are/aspire to be in a reality show. Recently and innocently enough, Nadya Suleman, a mom with six children went trough in vitro in order to have more kids. She ended up having eight more babies and being known as Octo-Mom. As I said before, she’s doing it for the fame. Richard and Mayumi Heene, aka “balloon boy masterminds” had already appeared in ABC’s “Wife Swap” a few times and were looking to up their notoriety in order to sell their reality show to networks. With this hoax, not only they had a nation worried about the safety of a six-year-old, but they spent a lot of tax-payer money in order to retrieve a child who wasn’t in the balloon to begin with. Not only that, but what example does this gives to three young kids?

And as recent as last week, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the Virginia couple who crashed the Obama’s dinner are also trying to get more notoriety for an upcoming “The Real Housewives” reality show with Bravo. I must admit, however, that even though they did crash the party for fame and pictures, it was only the Secret Service fault here. They should have known this couple wasn’t invited to the wedding.

Fame has become so easy to attain for anyone, before, fame used to mean something. It meant someone was a talented performer, player or political figure. With the advent of reality shows and Youtube, more and more careless and irresponsible individuals have been trying to become famous no matter what. Jon and Kate, from TLC’s Jon and Kate plus eight, don’t really care about the safety of their kids. If they did, they would’ve shut-down production a long time ago and not to negotiate more money/presence in the show. Nadya Suleman, would’ve used the disability money she had not to pay for in vitro or plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie, but to feed her original six kids, to provide them with clothes and better shelter and hopefully a future. Now, with rumors still existing for a book and a TV deal, plus constant coverage on US Weekly, her efforts have paid themselves. Yet, who cares about these 14 children? No one. And now, Nadya is famous for getting pregnant.

We need, as a society, as a nation and as consumers to avoid anything that has to do with any of these people, or future individuals who will be careless enough to put themselves, their children or anyone else in danger for their benefit. Even if it’s not reckless, even if it’s stupid like “Speidi” is, we need to put a check and not put them in the cover of a magazine or as a center story. The media also has a big responsibility when it comes to this and it’s time they are held accountable. On that note E! should be congratulated by banning any news regarding Heidi and Spencer Pratt (unless it’s legitimate, like babies or death). I can’t imagine what hoax or desperate-attempt-for-fame someone will do, but hopefully it will go unnoticed.