Madonna produced tv movie airing tonight on VH1

A jaunty, airheaded movie, “30 Days Until I’m Famous” opens as Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” did: in a populous city painted in tropical colors, to the voice of a D.J. announcing how hot it is.

But this time the setting is Los Angeles, not Brooklyn, and the heat is not sociopolitical; it’s the kind generated by celebrities.

Showing tonight on VH1, “30 Days Until I’m Famous” is a Pygmalion fairy tale in which the heroine, Maggie Moreno (dimply Camille Guaty from “The Help”), must become not a lady but a star. To this end she has to leave behind her life as an assimilated American tomboy and courier to sham a cutout Latina identity: the accent, the humble origins, the sexy self-presentation. Far from an ethnic showdown, this movie is a farce about an ethnic masquerade.

Produced by Madonna, “30 Days Until I’m Famous” is for kids. It is another version of that world ruler’s perpetual command to her followers: Be yourself. Be yourself, that is, and be famous.

Article by Virginia Heffernan
Source: The New York Times