It's a small industry. The adoration of fans is fickle, and respect from peers as well as fame are hard-earned but can vanish quickly.
The odds seem stacked against anyone who tries to enter the SA entertainment industry. For the Free State, Kutlwanong-born Thandi "Blue" Mbombo it was even harder to be taken seriously in showbiz because of her early reality TV fame.
“We were undermined a lot as people who came from Big Brother," the model recalls. "A lot of doors were closed for us and when we got to red carpets, celebrities would want to push us aside and call us 'microwave celebrities' and say that we wouldn’t get far. But hard work has put me where I am.”
