I get how and why the Ryan Reynolds “superstar” monicker applies to him as he’s pretty much a household name across the globe.
However, I don’t believe that Rob McElhenney is, or ever has been, a household name on anywhere near the scale of Reynolds.
I don’t know, maybe it’s my ignorance, but I’d never heard of him until I began watching Welcome to Wrexham.
Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a hugely talented and all round wonderful guy with an impressive track record in the TV industry. He’s also a fantastic owner for Wrexham, and both he and Ryan are a fantastic double act, both for the North Walian club and for the show about said club.
Even so, I can’t get my head around why the media insists on throwing the Hollywood net far and wide, over those people whose celebrity status doesn’t, necessarily, justify it.
To me, and once again please excuse my ignorance, Rob McHelenney seems to have plied his trade almost exclusively, in the American TV industry, and so therefore he has risen to prominence in that industry.
Ryan Reynolds on the other hand, has plied his trade, almost exclusively, in the film industry, most notably, in Hollywood.
I understand that there is something of a synergy between the two entertainment spheres, so much so that there have been many a TV actor/actress who has gone on to become a Hollywood success story, such as George Clooney, Jodie Foster and Bruce Willis.
However, McHelenney hasn’t quite broken through on the scale of someone such as them or Reynolds.
Maybe if it was aired in the UK in the same way that Friends was, and took off in the same manner across the globe, then I would have heard of him long before Welcome to Wrexham became a must watch for me.
I’m certainly not trying to be elitist in all of this either, as I don’t subscribe to the idea that Hollywood is any better or worse as an industry than the TV industry.
There’s enough dross churned out by the both of them, that it makes you wonder how on Earth some of those movies and TV series’s ever got past the development phase.
Simply put, I am just astounded by the media’s lack of attention to detail over what constitutes who is a Hollywood star and therefore a household name, and who isn’t.