Welcome to Celebrity Hell, Dick Cheney

Lost in Showbiz didn't plan to bring you a damnation special this week, but seeing as that's how things appear to have shaken down, the following item will concern former vice-president Dick Cheney.

Until recently, this column would have cited Fawn Hall as the least showbizzy individual ever to be ambushed by videorazzi website TMZ. It's not that we don't all want to find out what the stars of Iran Contra did next, just that the definition of celebrity appeared stretched to breaking point.

But now all bets are off, as the former vice-president made his spellbinding TMZ debut this week. Approached by the usual knuckle-dragging cameraman outside a New York building, Dick seems unsure of the etiquette - and instead of hissing "Out of my face, scumbag!" in the manner of a Lindsay Lohan or a Paris Hilton, he actually attempts to answer the cameraman's questions.

Which were ... oh, something about whether or not Barack Obama should have attended a Broadway play when the economy's in trouble, and then a follow-up about Susan Boyle (Cheney's a fan).

But the real point is the familiar one about second acts in American lives, and we must salute Dick for managing to work his way out of the relatively minor West Wing leagues, all the way up to being deemed a person of sufficient irrelevance to interest TMZ.