Fifteen minutes, notoriety, reality. Fame comes in many forms, so it takes quite a character to have achieved most of them.
For interview purposes it helps that Piers Morgan - former editor of one of the most vicious tabloids in the UK, novelist,
former "serious" TV presenter and now pantomime villain in reality TV talent shows - is also a motormouth with an opinion on everything.
Hollywood obsessed
Take his view on his fellow America's Got Talent co-host David Hasselhoff: "He thinks I'm a tabloid Brit, and I know he's a Hollywood-obsessed idiot."
Morgan throws solid gold soundbites like confetti at a wedding. He's abrasive but affable, and when it comes to fame he's talked the talk and walked the walk.
The British knew him as the anti-Iraq war editor who resigned after publishing faked pictures of British soldiers torturing
people in Iraq.
He's also famous for baiting celebrities, and being unapologetic for breeching their privacy.
Being famous
In the US he's crossed over, famous for being a judge on the wildly successful America's Got Talent TV show.
Morgan loves his new foray into fame, but even he finds his success in the US bemusing.
"Being famous in the US is totally weird," he said. "If someone told me four years ago that I would be sitting on primetime TV judging piano playing pigs I would have told them they were nuts.
"Now I find myself walking out in front of screaming people. It's like I'm a rock star."
Sportingly, since his transformation, Morgan realises he is now fair game for his old media friends.
He admits to getting the "odd whack on the nose" from the press, but claims it's OK as long as it is "well executed" and
enhances the "Piers Morgan" brand.
Luck
One of his favourites was when US tabloid the National Enquirer ran an exposé into his "secret dark past".
"It seems they had taken it all from my own book," he laughed.
With a lengthy career in the limelight, Morgan is in pole position to give tips on selling yourself.
His advice was disappointingly well rounded, saying: "Life is about luck. It's 90 per cent luck, but also 10 per cent
ability, talent and hard work. You need to have the basics of hard work to stay there. The harder you work the luckier you
get."
Fortunately, Morgan was soon back on form, complaining - without a hint of irony - about the calibre of celebrity in the
reality TV era.
"Anyone can become famous and I can tell anyone how to become famous. But making it last, that's the problem.
"I believe there should be a purity of celebrity. You used to have to have achievement to be warranted celebrity status, now you just have to sleep with Paris Hilton."
Quite.
Household name
Today, he is a household name in the UK again, verbally sparring with fellow panto villain Simon Cowell in the show's British version.
He knows and revels in his role, adding: "Simon was looking for someone like him who could be obnoxious and upset people. I was perfect.
"Through my job in the press I was one of the most hated men in Britain. Now I say to Simon, thanks, you've made me reviled on a global scale." It's clear he's enjoying his renaissance, but behind the posturing he appreciates his lot.
And with good reason. His stint as the bad guy on America's Got Talent came when his career was in the doldrums. From zero to hero. Was it the marketing coup of the century?
"It wasn't really a re-invention. I didn't have much choice," he said.
"When you're unemployed, it's sink or swim. You need to work. I tried TV, some chat shows and political stuff but that didn't work well. The timing was luck, but I still had to have the talent to do it," he added.
Dubai
And of course, no conversation about fame could pass without a mention of Dubai.
With tongue firmly in cheek he said he would have lasted "about a week" as an editor in Dubai adding that the city wasn't ready for him, but then neither was the UK.
Is there anything Dubai Inc. could learn from him? Cue one last soundbite.
"Dubai is the marketing story of the last 50 years," he said. "I hear lots of people described as visionary but most wouldn't
have the vision to look out of the front door. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will go down as one of the greats."
