Ecclestone turns to reality TV to boost career

Let's get real: celebrity reality TV is experiencing a boom like never before. Love it or loathe it, there's no escaping the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kimora Lee Simmons and Kendra Wilkinson. Few will quickly forget Sean Combs in his series I Want to Work For Diddy.

The latest celeb to sustain the trend is 27-year-old Tamara Ecclestone, the daughter of the F1 mogul Bernie. In her new show called Billion $$ Girl, cameras track the every move of the heiress as she refurbishes her new £45 million (Dh255m) home in Kensington, west London.

With the renovations set to take up to two years, Ecclestone clearly has her eyes set on the fame reality TV brought Paris Hilton following her starring role in The Simple Life with Nicole Richie.

"Everyone thinks I'm a lunatic for doing the show," Ecclestone told a UK newspaper. "I've been asked to do a reality TV show so many times. I was too young before and I didn't really know what I was doing with my life. This offer came in and I thought, 'I'm in a really good place and I know career-wise where I'm going, so why not let the cameras in?'"

Why not indeed, especially when designer gifts and top tables at posh eateries are a natural consequence of prime-time exposure. However, one has to wonder if it's only a matter of time before this new generation of reality A-listers start crying "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!"