I don’t pay any special degree of attention to the Kardashians. I know enough about them to know that there are a lot of them, and that all the women have “K” names, including the young women who are Jenners and not, strictly speaking, Kardashians. Even though they keep up with them.
One is married or not to a drug-using ex NBA basketball player. One (at least) is a model. There’s one boy in the mix, and his name is Rob, and he’s involved with/married to someone named Blac Chyna.
And they’re all famous for being famous.
Kim appears to the be the queen of them all. She’s not only famous for being famous, but, since becoming famous for being famous, she’s also built herself a “brand” that covers clothing, some sort of role-play game, and emojis. Oh, yeah, and she’s married to Kanye West.
Bonus points to the entire Kardashian clan for having reached their collective perch as the apotheoses of American pop-trash culture with a push-off from the springboard of the OJ Simpson murder trial. (The late father of the Kardashians was one of OJ’s lawyers.)
Kim and Kanye sit at the pinnacle, fame and $$$-wise. And that fame has just gotten bigger, thanks to an armed robbery in Paris that stripped Kim of $11M worth of jewelry while she was hanging in the City of Lights for Fashion Week.
Kim, of course, has a private bodyguard – when you build your fame and fortune on a scaffolding erected by paparazzi and tabloids, you must, of course, have bodyguards. And Kim’s #1 private bodyguard is Pascal Duvier who, when Kim was being robbed by gun-toting bad guys dressed up as flics – French slang for cop – was out at a nightclub protecting and defending a kouple of Kim’s K-named sisters.
Kim is not blaming Duvier for the robbery. She was staying in her private apartment, where she has heretofore felt safe. Personally, I don’t know how anyone can feel safe when they’re publicity hounds known for schlepping around lots of pricey bling. Or even how a non-publicity hound schlepping around $11M worth of jewelry could rest easy. Most of us fret about whether to leave our passports and extra 100 Euros in the hotel safe, or about whether a pickpocket will pick ours. Imagine having to worry about a ring worth multi-millions.
But Kim claims to have felt safe, and is not blaming Pascal Duvier.
No word of this writing on whether Kanye – not exactly known for his equanimity, even in the kindest and gentlest of settings – feels the same. After all, this isn’t a minor matter like Taylor Swift winning a VMA award that Kanye felt should have gone to Beyoncé, which famously – he is, after all, rather famous – set him off back in 2009. To the tune that he jumped on stage while Taylor was being awarded her award and interrupted the proceedings to protest. No, this wasn’t trivial. This was gunpoint, middle of the night, zip-tied and gagged robbery of his wife, while he was thousands of miles away in NY. And while the bodyguard was a mile or so away with the clubbing sisters.
In any case, I suspect that Kim will be traveling with a larger, more beefed-up security entourage in the future. (I’m quite sure that leaving the big, ostentatious bling at home is not an option.) When she arrived back in the States, landing in NJ, she was reportedly escorted back into NYC with a 15-car caravan. Not clear whether Pascal Duvier was part of the posse.
Duvier, for his part, has vowed to catch the bad guys. So maybe he’s still on the ground in Paris. (By the way, speaking of famous for being famous, Duvier is something of a celeb himself, with over 9,000 twitter followers who want to see what it’s like to be the bodyguard of someone famous for being famous. First derivative, as it were.)
But from a reputation point of view, this can’t be good for Duvier. After all, nothing says security professional like an armed, $11M robbery that takes place when you’ve just stepped out.
Meanwhile, and inevitably, there are conspiracy theories being theorized on whether the robbery was a hoax. Or, if for real, whether some of the details have been bejeweled a bit.
When you’re famous for being famous, you gotta keep the spotlight on yourself, and appearing in a skintight dress that barely contains your boobs just doesn’t cut it anymore, I guess.
Whether the robbery was fully the real deal, or has some element of creepy clown hoax in it, I wouldn’t want to be in Pascal Duvier’s shoes.
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