Meaning of 15 minutes of fame | Babel Free

Definitions

A very short time in the spotlight or brief flurry with fame, after which the person or subject involved is quickly forgotten.

idiomatic, plural, plural-only

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] Paula [Jones] was, even to her lawyers, a loose cannon—as prepared to risk her marriage and her well-being to get the president to confess his original sin as she was intent on making big money and getting her fifteen minutes of fame.”

“In the next chapter, we'll meet twenty-five hopefuls who have already begun to experience their fifteen minutes of fame as a result of exposure on YouTube.”

“By the time we went to Central Park, someone walking in the park said they had just seen us on Fox that morning. It was like being a rock star with a whole fifteen minutes of fame. So it was fun for a time.”

“After just a month on television, this ordinary chap from Catford, south London, was an overnight superstar, ready to milk his 15 minutes of fame.”

“One day in early January 1970, Michael James Brody Jr. stepped off a Pan Am jet at John F. Kennedy Airport and into what would be one of the new decade’s shortest, strangest 15 minutes of fame.”

CEFR level