Fame and Fortune

Might there be a jealousy-versus-pride syndrome at work here, where pop star sensation Justin Bieber's mother resents being overlooked in the general acclaim over her son's popular appeal and his celebrity status, leaving her somewhat out in the cold? Or might she just be using his popularity solely as a foundational pole around which she can twirl her bid for celebrity as a champion for the 'unborn'?

Evidently she has written and had published a memoir detailing her own life, finding herself as a teen pregnant but being rescued by her conversion to Christianity. And her newfound Christian belief, she asserts, was what ensured that she would bring her pregnancy to term, and give birth to her son, the musical pop-star genius whom young girls respond to with warmth and wild applause.

She has launched a fundraising project in a short film in support of American pregnancy centres. Her purpose, to aid them in persuading women to bypass abortion in favour of completing pregnancies to term and giving birth. The inspiration being her own good fortune at having raised a boy whose musical performance has risen to the top of the charts.

The film, Crescendo, represents the ultimate pro-life message. To be screened in pregnancy centres across the United States. And if the success of her son in achieving a global audience is emulated with her venture, then the film will be circulated world-wide, so the plan goes. The website for the film, is replete with countless childhood photographs of Ms. Malette and her young son.

In her book, Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber's Mom, published by a Christian publishing house, Ms. Malette spares no details of the misfortune of her early life. But she hopes to amend all of that with her future life aspirations, to become a motivational success as a career anti-abortionist speaker and heroic figure for women feeling the duress of an unwanted pregnancy.

Her personal story of a sordid beginning in life, one replete with sexual abuse, abandonment, drugs and troubling personal performances echoes that of many others who have either sunk into their misery, or managed to find the inner will and the strength of courage to rescue themselves. She may be leaning on her son's fame to help her pave the way to success.

But she has not, for all her anti-abortion passion, affiliated herself and her mission with any pro-life networks, groups like Life Canada or Americans United For Life. She wants to share attention with no one or no other group, having established her very own. And those interested may order a screening for their "life-changing event", at a cost of $700 for a public screening, or $2,500 for a theatre version.

The dancing sugar-plums of fame and fortune.