Since I know a lot of UK viewers don't know some celebs the US audience takes for granted as ubiquitous, I'll give a description of each of these people from the POV of someone living in the US--both what they are best known for and exactly how famous they are regarded by an American audience...
Originally Posted by steph201290:
“Buzz Aldrin and Ashly DelGrosso Costa”
I'm sure everyone knows Buzz--the 2nd man to walk on the moon. It's also worth noting that the character of Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story" was VERY loosely based on Aldrin. FAME LEVEL: Very high in a name recognition sense, relatively low in terms of modern cultural relevance.
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“Pamela Anderson and Damian Whitewood”
Probably pretty well known worldwide, right? "Baywatch" being the worldwide smash hit that it was. But she's had little to no work in the US in recent years. FAME LEVEL: Fairly high name recognition, medium in terms of modern cultural relevance.
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“Erin Andrews and Maksim Chmerkovskiy”
Not famous. No, let me revise that. She was a run of the mill sport reporter on the American sports network, ESPN, slightly known because she was fairly pretty, but lost in a crowd of hundreds of other pretty but inconsequential generic entertainment and sports media people. THEN some guy stalked her and took pictures of her naked through the peephole in the door of a hotel she was staying at and posted it on the Internet. Instantly she became VERY famous... for all of 2 or 3 weeks. Then everyone forgot about it, because it wasn't any more or less interesting than seeing ANY good looking girl naked. FAME LEVEL: name recognition is almost nonexistant, since if people know her at all its as "that sportscaster chick who got photographed naked in her hotel room". Modern cultural relevance is also almost nil.
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“Shannen Doherty and Mark Ballas”
If you saw the show "Beverley Hills 90210" (from back in the 90s) you know her. Or the first few seasons of "Charmed". But she hasn't worked much SINCE Charmed. FAME LEVEL: name recognition is okay, but her cultural relevance currently has got to be pretty low (90210 is back as a new series though, so that adds to her relevance a bit).
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“Kate Gosselin and Tony Dovolani”
The show is going to be selling her as"America's favorite Mom". Please be aware that when the show says that, they will be lying to you (they can't call her what she REALLY is or she'd walk). She's on a Reality Show, which I pray to god isn't exported to the UK, because it would REALLY make America look bad. She, and her husband (who cheated on her and divorced her, with the American tabloids looking on) put their 8 kids on TV in a show about, well... them well... raising 8 kids. In other words, she's exploiting her kids to be famous. And watch the body language of the other "Stars" towards her. Apparently this jumped up little nobody is a major Diva on set and like most of the rest of America, nobody on the show can stand her. FAME LEVEL: infamous, not famous. Her name recognition is currently pretty high with American audiences, but almost as a cautionary tale. Her cultural relevance is also fairly high for a similar reason--people talk about her, her crappy husband and their poor exploited kids all of the time.
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“Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya”
He just won an Olympic Gold Medal. I'm assuming the BBC showed at least a BIT of that, right?
That said, I still bet there are a lot of Americans who won't recognize him, since Ice skating is a sport which a lot of people don't connect with all that well. FAME LEVEL: medium name recognition--he's got his medal and it was hyped a lot, but previous to the Olympics only skating fans knew him at all. A decent amount of current cultural relevance though, since the Olympics JUST ended.
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“Niecy Nash and Louis Van Amstel”
Honestly, she's only barely famous, although she's been on several TV shows. "Reno 911", a comedy, is reasonably well known, but it was only a cable TV show so a lot of people don't know it. She's also on some reality show about cleaning up people's messy houses, and a correspondent on one of the U.S. Entertainment News shows. FAME LEVEL: name recognition is probably pretty low, cultural relevance not much better.
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“Chad Ochocinco and Cheryl Burke”
He's an American football player. Some of those guys can be REALLY famous to America overall, but this guy isn't one of those. He plays for a very unpopular team, in a small market (Cincinnati) and is mostly known for changing his name to match his Jersey number (85) and getting fined a lot for celebrating too much when he scores points. FAME LEVEL: fairly low name recognition, despite the ridiculous name change, and fairly low cultural relevance, since football players are a dime a dozen, and he's no Hall of Famer.
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“Jake Pavelka and Chelsie Hightower”
He's one of an almost endless stream of "regular" men who appear on a dopey but very well rated dating show, "The Bachelor". FAME LEVEL: very high name recognition among women who watch the dopey dating show, very low to everyone else in the population. He's about as culturally relevant as an eggplant.
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“Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough”
She's the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls. In other words, actually a reasonably big star. FAME LEVEL: The odd thing is I think a lot of people know her face (and body) more than her hard to pronounce and spell name. But the Pussycat Dolls were still a red hot group, even as recent as a year or two ago, so she's certainly relevant.
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“Aiden Turner and Edyta Sliwinska”
He's an actor on a daytime soap opera. Ultimately these guys are a dime a dozen. FAME LEVEL: outside of loyal viewers of that show, probably close to zero name recognition. And soap stars are NEVER relevant at all, being inherently interchangable.
