You know the movie "The Truman Show?" The one about Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) who discovers his whole life is a TV show? Since the day he was born, he lived on a TV set disguised as a town, was followed by hidden cameras, and his friends and family were really hired actors and actresses.

Well sit down, because I've made a disturbing discovery. I've discovered I'm the star of "The Megan Show."

Millions of people watch me 24/7 on a special TV channel. I'm the star of a TV show being controlled by a Puppetmaster, who looks like Ed Harris in a French beret. He didn't build a set for me to live in like he did for Truman but he's set up cameras to follow me everywhere I go.

I can feel the viewers' eyes on me. Wanting to know where I go, what I do, how I pick my clothes, how I style my hair, how I choose my blog posts. They want to know the TV shows I watch, the music I listen to, the food I eat.

Today I had shrimp salad for lunch at a local restaurant and there was a camera in one of my shrimp. I could see the reflection of the lens. If my waiter had been a better actor, he'd have tried to engage me in conversation so the fans could see me talking. That's what the fans want: me and more of me. They hang on my every word, every gesture, every movement.

Strangers now try to engage me in conversation.  All of a sudden the coffee man at the train station is giving me a large decaf, dark with no sugar every morning, without my asking. And he charges me a quarter less than everyone else. All of a sudden, my long lost father has reappeared and wants to be part of my life. He was supposed to have drowned when I was twelve but now he's returned. All of a sudden, a man at a party who's smart, handsome and attentive, asked me out. That never happens in real life.

There's a guy in the subway who plays a medley from "South Pacific on his flute every evening. The Puppetmaster knows I love the show "South Pacific" and it's fun for the fans to hear me hum along.

When I'm home, people come to the door trying to sell me things. It's like Candid Camera except they never tell you when it's over. Because it never is.

Sometimes I get messages through the TV shows I watch. Especially from men who are obsessed with me.  Dr. Gregory House tells me he loves me every time he insults one of his colleagues.  Sawyer tells me he loves me every time he calls one of the other Losties by a nickname.   McDreamy tells me he loves me every time he goes into surgery.  Gio tells me he loves me every time he makes one of his famous sandwiches.

How do I feel about all this? At first it was disturbing, but now...I'm starting to enjoy it. I imagine people asking for my autograph. They won't of course because it's all supposed to be a big secret, but I know that's what they want. I imagine people in India, Germany, Sweden, and Bora Bora all watching me. Oh what a glorious feeling to have them watching me.

But there are people out there who think this is a disease. That people like me are sick.

That rag The National Post is perpetuating the idea by giving unwarranted publicity to two Canadian psychiatrist brothers, Joel and Ian Gold, who have supposedly diagnosed this "disease" as "The Truman Show Delusion." What hogwash! I laughed as I read it because they don't know what they're talking about. There is no such delusion.

One of their "patients" was quoted as saying: "My family and everyone I knew were and are actors in a script, a charade whose entire purpose is to make me the focus of the world's attention."

The psychiatrists have basically dubbed this guy a nut job, but obviously the man is one of the select few like me. Chosen to be a star.

Several gullible bloggers have gotten sucked into the Golds' wacky theories. Jen at The Gothamist thinks the solution "to stop this disease from spreading: end all reality television." Like that's ever going to happen.

Melissa at ValleyWag wrote:

Fame-seeking, they say, "is a form of grandiosity, and the fear of threats such as surveillance can bring about paranoia," but in 2008? The idea that everywhere you go, a camera isn't far behind doesn't just make you a little bit crazy: Between San Francisco's Flickrazzi and CCTV, you might also be right.

Kristin at Digital Culture Studies  had this to say:

What I found so interesting about this is that we are all being filmed in public, some nearly all the time, by ‘official’ government-sanctioned cameras, private-sector surveillance, criminals, and by each other. It isn’t surprising that some people feel constantly watched by unknown viewers, because….they are being watched. We all are.

Those bloggers? They're just jealous because millions of people aren't watching them.

Right now there's a guy sitting next to me on the train. He's got on a pink and white striped shirt and he's pretending to be sleeping, but I know he's not. He's one of them. He's got a little camera in his watch and it's pointed right in my direction. I'm just going to sit here and pretend I don't notice. I'll give a sly little smile as if I'm smiling at something I just wrote, but it'll be a secret message to all my fans.

Originally via Boing Boing. 

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Megan Smith is a BlogHer Contributing Editor covering Television and YouTube and she's also the star of the true life reality program "The Megan Show." Her other blogs are Megan's Minute: quirky commentary around the clock, and Video Runway.