‘Below Deck Med’: João Franco Shares a Crazy Cameo Request
João Franco from Below Deck Mediterranean recently shared that a fan wanted him to send a birthday wish to a spouse, while at the same time calling the birthday boy a string of inappropriate names.
Franco joked on his Instagram story, “I feel the love in this one!” Cameo celebrity video platform has become increasingly popular. Fans can purchase a video message from their favorite celebrity and direct the celebrity to say just about anything.
The problem is sometimes fan requests go a little too far. Colin Macy-O’Toole from Below Deck Med recently discussed what he did with a questionable Cameo he received. Macy-O’Toole decided to pass on doing the video because of what the fan wanted him to say.
Celebrities can let a Cameo expire
Macy-O’Toole shared that he let a Cameo request expire that he wasn’t comfortable doing. “You know Cameos, they can tell you what to say,” he said on the Hot Takes & Deep Dives podcast. “I had a Cameo once that they told me to say something bad. Like ‘Wish my girlfriend a happy birthday. And also say Conrad sucks or something like that.”
“I didn’t do it,” he continued. Adding, “I just didn’t even do the Cameo. I let it expire. Yeah, I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.'” A Cameo for Macy-O’Toole is $50. Franco charges the same price.
“If it’s been more than seven days since you submitted your request and you haven’t received it, it’s likely the talent was unable to complete it,” according to Cameo. “The request will expire and your Cameo account will be issued a credit (in USD only) that may be used only for other in-app payments.”
Fan requests can be crazy
Actor Gilbert Gottfried shared some of his Cameo requests with Vice. “Could you tell my cousin to go f**k himself,” he read to the reporter. “Could you tell my next-door neighbor, Vic to shuck my d**k? And you know it’s like, ‘Oh, okay.’ It’s hard to judge.”
White supremacists were busted in 2018 for tricking NFL quarterback Brett Favre into recording a coded anti-semitic video, Vice noted. Cameo alerted their entire talent base after the recording was discovered.
Why do celebrities do Cameo? “I feel like you can never take your shoes off, put your feet up and say, ‘Oh I’ve made it,'” Gottfried says about fame. “90% of having a career is just reminding people you’re still alive.” Gottfried charges $150 for a video. He’s also well-reviewed and received 4.9 out of five stars.
Reporters from The Atlantic shared how an American Idol contestant on Cameo turned down their request. “Last year, we asked the American Idol Season 1 runner-up, Justin Guarini, to record a Cameo for Mark McGrath, apologizing to him for something we had said to him earlier (long story). Guarini responded personally in less than a minute with a polite but firm ‘No. Happy Thanksgiving.'”
