Unchained and hawking eye drops

[+ purplekow]

I saw a commercial in which Vanessa Williams was hawking some sort of eye product. She has had a very successful career in the business of show but her path to success was certainly a bit different than most. This raised the question in my mind:

in retrospect, did Vanessa Williams' success prove the axiom that there is no such thing as bad publicity? Or is she merely a talented individual who whose success would have likely happened without all the slutty pictures controversy and the loss of the Miss America tiara?

 

Also whatever happened to Suzette Charles? After completing Vanessa's reign, Suzette had a modicum of success but faded into the great pantheon of obscurity.