Olympic Swimmer Realizes Medals Aren't Real Gold, Turns Into Media Machine

Yesterday we discussed how Michael Phelps might fair on SNL, and today we learn that he has sprouted multiple copies of himself and is churning out appearances left and right. The miracle boy from Beijing has a cameo in the new season of Entourage, will appear next week on Leno, and just scored a book deal to write his memoir, called something like "How I Shit Gold Medals" or "Your Freakishly Large Hands Can Help You Swim Fast Too".

It's understandable why Phelps needs this media exposure. He must take advantage of the Vanishing Olympian Fame Window, which is how long people will remember you after your Olympic days.  It is calculated by multiplying the number of medals you have won against the Moseley Factor, named after the great ski jumper Jonny Moseley*.

Moseley won a single medal, and was famous for a week (they built a ski jump for him on Letterman), so the Moseley Factor is 7.

Phelps won eight gold medals, so should be famous for about 56 days.

*remember him? of course you don't. He won the gold at Nagano in 1998. You know what he's doing now? He's burning his skis for fuel to keep warm. Or is a student at UC Berkeley. Same thing.

[via Us]