Natascha Kampusch On TV
There’s something that doesn’t really quite make sense here about Natascha Kampusch.
For years television was her main form of entertainment and view of the world as she lived in an underground prison. Now the kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch is to become a TV talk show host herself - a career of which she dreamed during her incarceration.
Less than two years after her release, the 20-year old Austrian says she is now learning “the other side” of the media. On Sunday she will host the first in her chat show series, “Natascha Kampusch Meets …” on the private television channel Puls 4.
I mean, yes, she is famous, she’s certainly had a different life so far to almost everyone else. But, umm, are we entirely sure that the best training for chatting to people is to spend eight years in a cellar on your own?
May 30th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Given the quality of news readers in the USA, I would think they would benefit from eight years in a cellar.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Of all people, it seems Natasha would know what makes for good TV. It’s lovely that she is able to do something productive after suffering so much trauma.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I get the irony, Tim. But perhaps her craving for human interaction after long isolation will create success. But then again, I imagine it might be hard, after so much solitude, to be thrown in with so many people, have to chit chat with them, be sociable, follow society’s etiquettes, etc. Remember that silly Tom Hanks movie, when he was stranded on an island for many years and befriended the coconut?
Not to minimize the sufferings here, and not to say that being kept prisoner is in any way a positive experience, but on the note of solitude, I find myself craving for it more each day. The older I get, the more I enjoy being alone. And I’m now just 34 – if there’s a craving for a sprinkle more solitude each day, what will I feel like by the time I’m 50? Or 60? For me, the thought of having a talk show is horrendous.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I was on a talk show a couple of weeks back in London. It was absolutely great fun: someone was paying me to talk about my (slightly odd) economic and political ideas! Hugely enjoyable!
But then as I mention above, 8 years in hte basement might not be the best training for such a thing….