The LA Times has a headline saying Kim Kardashian's divorce could ruin the family brand.

Are they kidding?

The first most Americans head about the family Kardashian is when her father was at a press conference saying OJ Simpson had fled and no one knew where he was. A few hours later we had the infamous slow motion car chase. The next time we paid attention to the name was with the famous shot of the verdict being read in the case. Her father was the one with the shocked look on his face, with some wondering if the look meant he was shocked OJ was let go by the jury.

A few years later, and this is when the family name became more than an OJ connection, was when Kim allowed Ray J to use a video camera to take film of the two of them having sex and that footage got released to the public. Other than Paris Hilton, sex tapes up to that time had been taboo material, something guaranteed to cause well meaning people to shun the other.

At least that is what we were lead to believe.

I remember, early in 1980, there was the Vanessa Williams scandal. She had been crowned Miss America in 1983 for the year 1984. Ten months into her reign she had to give up the crown because of racy photos of her and another woman, art photos that had been taken of her, surfaced. I remember my father seeing me with the Penthouse magazine that had the photos and I remember what I had heard in church about the woman. I'll just say the comments made by my father and the church weren't flattering to Vanessa Williams. It took about four years for her to recover from that, when she released an album called The Right Stuff. She has since had a successful singing and acting career.

Could Vanessa Williams be considered the mother of all the people who think the path to fame and fortune can be had by releasing sexual images of themselves 'unsuspectingly.' I'm sure some might try but I wouldn't think that link is correct. Vanessa Williams never tried to capitalize off the photos, never sought to 'turn lemons into lemonade' as it were. She had a controversial reign as the first black Miss America (yes including death threats) so adding a sex scandal to the mix was not in her best interest. No, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian started a whole new and disturbing trend.

While there was initial outrage about the images being leaked, similar to the what happened to Williams the public, and let's be clear about this, men were curious about them. Paris kind of stumbled into her fame over the photos, but with Kardashian there was, after some initial missteps, an effort to make money off the incident. Kim Kardashian is said to be worth over $30 million dollars and the brand, her family name, could be worth over $100 million.

So saying the family name could be ruined because of the divorce is something of a sensational headline by the LA Times. You have people who hear about the Herman Cain allegations of sexual harassment and they support him. You saw the crowds at Penn State support a coach because they were more upset because he was fired than him passing the buck when he heard one of his assistant coaches molested a 10 year old boy, allegedly. I really doubt the legion of Kim Kardashian fans will stop buying her perfume, watching her show or following her family's every move because she got a divorce. The controversy will only help the family brand.