I was born in ‘74, so I grew up with Zsa-Zsa being a famous-for-being-famous public figure, but I always assumed she began with an acting career before my time, like her sister, Eva. (Well, Eva may have parlayed famous-for-being-famous into an acting career, but there was some substance at some point at least.) Anyway I didn’t realize Zsa-Zsa was just a proto reality star. [see reply for correction]
By watching Green Acres re-runs as an adult over the last few years, I came to the realization that Eva was actually hilarious and seemed cool; a sport about her image as a pampered, out-of-touch continental beauty.
I have no opinion on Zsa-Zsa but my ill-informed impression of her public persona was that she saw herself as more legitimate despite not actually doing anything. However, the cop-slapping thing in the late 90s was legit hilarious and I’ll always remember it as being immortalized in an early, fire-drenched Fat Joe lyric on his KRS One collab “Bronx Tale.” The full lyric would probably get me flagged but the relevant bit was "Puffin’ Els in the corridor/I’m slappin’ cops like Gabors…"
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