Sophie Monk

By Ines Mendoza

Advertisement

The world has a lot to answer for. Ambiguous comment? Yes it is, but hear me out. Reality shows are flooding my TV set, some are real, some are "mockumentaries", some have "portions edited for comic purposes" 

And at the end of the day, what do we have to show for it?

Anybody with a semi-functioning brain is able to reach for their 15 minutes of fame without having to work to hard for it; based on my value system, that's a great shame.

And this is opposed to the die-hard, out-of-work actors who slug it out for several years on the lucrative theatre restaurant circuit. And the weird thing is, these slacking nobodies who reach star status thanks to reality TV are making fools of themselves in the eye of the public just to get on the door list of one of these aforesaid restaurants!

Unless of course you are Australia's Sophie Monk.

Hailing from England in the early '80s, Sophie Charlene Akland Monk (or "Monkey Brains" as she is known to her friends) moved to the luxurious surrounds of tropical Queensland in Australia when she was but a small child.

As an ambitious 15-year-old she wrote in her diary that she wanted to have a hit album and single out by the year 2000. She also wrote that she was in love with Billy Tomkins from her year 8 English class and that Steve from Science class had the deadly disease "Boys Germs", but that is neither here nor there...

Success wasn't too far away for the girl who originally trained as an opera singer before being derailed from her classical path by a stint as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator at Warner Brothers Movie World ("Hollywood on the Gold Coast" to some, "That place where you can make a dodgy 1990's pop video for only $20 bucks" to others).

However, fate intervened once again when a new show began on Australia's Seven Network in 1999 called Popstars (based on the English program of the same name).

Immediately Sophie was an audience favourite with her bubbly attitude, blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, lusciously thick lips and...obvious extra assets, the then 18 year old was quickly chosen to join the new music girl-group 'Bardot'. 

The show's popularity was unprecedented at that point in time, pre Australian Idol or Anthony Callea, with the first 'Bardot' single "Poison" debuting at #1 in 2000 as did their self titled album. 

The album racked up multi-platinum sales and fans across Australia, NZ and throughout Asia. However, as with all reality shows, fame was indeed fleeting. The follow-up "Play It Like That" which featured the singles "ASAP" and "I Need Somebody" attempted to rebirth the group as a tight four-piece, who in the short space of a year had gone from Industry Heavyweights to a Public Joke.

By early 2002, the group made the amicable decision to disband. However, Monk knew it wasn't over. 

With a public profile and the advantage of "Not being the Red Head chick from Bardot" Sophie immediately threw herself into forging her own distinctively up-beat pop path. Just a matter of months after the break-up Sophie simultaneously launched her first solo single, the annoyingly catchy/pretty pop hit 'Inside Outside" and a modeling career as the face of Expozay swimwear.

She also scored a number of glossy magazine covers for the Australian editions of Cleo, Vogue and Marie Claire, which helped entrench the Sophie brand into the minds of easily impressionable 20- and 30-somethings across this wide brown land of ours.

However, Sophie's biggest hits were still to come...

Landing a role in one of the last ever Blink 182 film clips in 2004, Sophie's foot was firmly in the door of Hollywood. In 2006 she made her screen debut as "a hot blonde chick" Andy, in the comedy Date Movie. While the film is nothing short of terrible, the same couldn't be said for Sophie's stunning curves. Her appearance in tiny swimsuits set tongues wagging all throughout Hollywood and the world. I'll even admit after watching Date Movie, I was tempted to leave my boyfriend for an Ellen DeGeneres type of life with Sophie.

Sophie also appeared in the Adam Sandler flick Click (a role which she beat out serial movie tart, Carmen Electra, for), as well as releasing the album "Calender Girl" in 2006 which received some good press. In Click, Sophie appeared alongside such luminaries as Christopher Walken, Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Sean Austin and even the 'Hoff - David Hasselhoff.

So let it not be said that Reality TV is a complete waste of time. Having said that... let's have a minute of silence for the following Reality TV stars who have disappeared: 

Scott Cain, The cast of "The Hot House", The muscled lady from Survivor 1 who said "Ta-pi-oh-ka", Chip and Reichan, Scandal'us, Vincent from BB3, Sarah Marie, Merlin, Miriam, The X Factor and the fat kid from Hey Dad. We miss you all.

Source: 20th Century Fox Photography: Unknown/Date Movie Still	Source: 20th Century Fox Photography: Unknown/Date Movie Still