BORING CELEBRITIES Toupee was topper to Traficant overkill

The former congressman made the list of people whose excessive media coverage made them boring.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There are "celebrities" more boring than former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., but not many of them, according to a national organization.
Traficant, the former congressman and current federal prison inmate, finished in ninth place on the 19th annual list of the most boring celebrities of the year put out by the Boring Institute, located in Maplewood, N.J.
The annual list is intended to call attention to the way the media identify a handful of celebrities, generally based on their egotism, stupidity, criminal and/or destructive behavior, said Alan Caruba, the institute's founder.
The celebrities may not necessarily be boring, but the vast news coverage they received this year tended to induce boredom, he said.
A difficult year
"In all the years the Boring Institute has been selecting the most overexposed celebrities, 2002 has proven to be the most challenging, ranging between people of no discernible talent to corrupt politicians," Caruba said.
Traficant joins a group including heavy-metal icon Ozzy Osbourne and former Guess jeans model and Playboy pinup Anna Nicole Smith, who both star in reality shows on cable TV, as well as pop singer Jennifer Lopez, working on her third marriage, and late baseball great Ted Williams, whose corpse has been the subject of lawsuits among his survivors.
The only person to make both this year's list and the one for 2001 was singing legend Barbra Streisand for her political activities with the Democratic Party.
Traficant finished one notch below outgoing U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat whose ethics have been questioned, and one spot above Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A busy year
It certainly has been a busy year for Traficant. He received national and international media attention for unsuccessfully defending himself in federal court against charges of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion.
He also fared poorly in front of a U.S. House ethics committee and the full House -- broadcast on national television -- fighting charges that resulted in his expulsion from the House and frequently discussing his bodily functions while the cameras were rolling.
Traficant gained more infamy this year with an eight-year sentence in prison, where he was forced to remove his toupee, and running to regain his congressional seat from his prison cell.
It was the toupee and the question as to whether it was his real hair that made Traficant such a boring celebrity, Caruba said.
"There were groups holding pools guessing if it was a dead possum or a couple of squirrels sewn together that was on his head," he said. "It was the subject of endless fascination. The toupee overrode the issue of whatever criminality was involved."
Caruba, a writer and public relations counselor who also is the founder of the National Anxiety Center, created the Boring Institute in 1984 to spoof the media and famous year-end lists, including Mr. Blackwell's worst-dressed celebrity list. Since then, however, it has become a clearinghouse of information about boredom's impact on individuals and society, and how it can lead to suicide, anti-social behavior and divorce, Caruba said.
skolnick@vindy.com