Most of us wish, from time to time, that we were movie stars. A lot of us would probably even settle for just living with one, basking in their reflected fame and charisma. But only one woman, as far as we know, has been willing to push that dream even further, turning delusion into reality by buying a cardboard cutout of a movie star and taking photos of it interacting with her and her family.
That woman is New Jersey mom Danielle Davies. That movie star is Bradley Cooper, represented in smiling cardboard form. And that whirring sound is your brain trying to work out whether this whole thing is brilliantly hilarious or distressingly creepy.
Davies’ blog, “My Life With Bradley Cooper,” documents the day-to-day existence of her, her amazingly patient husband, and her kids, as they share a home with cardboard Bradley Cooper (or, as her daughter apparently insists on calling him, “Mark Wahlberg”). Cardboard Cooper seems to go everywhere with the family—on runs, to the store, even to the Ocean City boardwalk.
Is this a symptom of our celebrity-obsessed culture? A testament to how far one family will go to make their mom happy? Or simply a realization that there’s something really, really funny about sticking a blandly smiling cardboard movie star into otherwise-normal domestic scenes? Perhaps only Cooper knows. And he’s not telling.
Because he’s made of cardboard.