Get bite of fame apple

Question

That would be U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. You will remember him from the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby investigation.
Here he is Tuesday getting another bite of the 15 minutes of fame apple.
I will tell you, what he said Tuesday is absolutely riveting:

Does this mean he talked 15 minutes as an excuse?
What does that mean?
Thanks.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

The American artist Andy Warhol once famously said that in our time everyone gets 15 minutes of fame.
So it means not that P. Fitzgerald talked for 15 minutes as an excuse, but that he is now briefly getting a few minutes of attention from the news media. (The apple is being used figuratively as the symbol of the 15 minutes of fame. Each bite uses up a few more minutes! Eventually the new media will grow tired of him, and his 15 minutes will be used up. We'll never hear any more about him after that!)
CJ

Avangi · Answer

It's a little bit crazy. There was an American artist (painter, I think) named Andy Warhol. I don't remember what style he painted in - weird, I think. He was more famous for his statement/remark that everyone gets/is intitled to 15 minutes of fame, even if he's just an ordinary bloke.

This is being combined here with another famous saying, I'd say related to the legal concept of double jeopardy. If a prosecutor tries a suspect for a crime and fails to convict him, he can't just keep trying him over and over again. (If a mistrial is declared, a prosecutor may retry; but if the man is acquitted, he may not be retried for the same crime. We say the prosecutor is allowed only one bite of the apple.

<<edited at poster's request>>

I'm not sure what the date of your quote is. Vice president **** Cheney's personal chief of staff, Scooter Libby was the only person convicted in the Valerie Plame incident, and Patrick Fitzgerald was the prosecutor. I don't know if your writer considers this the first or the second bite of the apple.

This is probably the only time anyone has tried to make this particular joke, combining the one bite of the prosecutorial apple with the Andy Warhol "one chance at 15 minutes of fame." It sort of works because Fitzgerald, a famous prosecutor, had two rather unique chances at fame.

Liveinjapan · Answer

Thanks, CJ and Avangi.
I understand.

It will take me a few more muitues to fully understand it, though.

Get bite of fame apple

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