Ever wanted to be famous? Ever wondered how those who have achieved an extraordinary level of fame have managed to keep it? Ever wondered what it is that that makes so many of us so fascinated by, and even covetous of, famous people. Or what makes anyone want to be famous, just for the sake of it? 

In The Fame Formula, Mark Borkowski, one of the Britain’s leading publicists, casts an insider’s eye over the astonishingly rapid growth of the fame industry, from silent movies to the internet and the instant news age. The book offers insights into how to come become famous and how to maintain that fame, using the stunts and practises of great, though often forgotten, publicists as illustrations. It highlights the extraordinary leaps of imagination that publicists used to promote movies, people and products. 

These are the people who sat on and hatched an ostrich egg to promote the film The Egg and I; the people who insured Betty Grable’s legs for $1 million to her in the press; the people who restrained Tom Cruise’s sofa bouncing tendencies; the people who dressed Marilyn Monroe in a potato sack for a glamour shoot; the people who spun webs of invented live for movie stars whose sexual preferences would have outraged the public in the early days of Hollywood; the people who sold a vision of Hollywood that has become reality. 

Borkowski has also discovered a scientific formula for the maintenance of fame, which is revealed in the book, that will help anyone wishing to achieve fame to do so, using the examples set by the great publicists as a guide to getting their name noticed. 

If you become a fan of the book on Facebook or MySpace, you will receive six exclusive out-takes from The Fame Formula, presenting some of the craziest, greatest and shrewdest stunts ever played on a willing public in the name of making something or someone famous, along with a selection of revealing photographs.