For about a month, a group of people who are related to A-list celebrities lived in a mansion, doing their best to get to know each other — while also keeping their identities a secret.
They were the Season 2 stars of the reality show “Claim to Fame,” and they were filmed pretty much 24/7 as they sifted through clues and tried to figure out each other’s celebrity connection.
In the mansion, the contestants often turned to the clue wall for guidance. A number of props decorated this wall, offering hints about all of the contestants’ celebrity relatives.
The only problem: Many of these props were ambiguous and worked for multiple contestants.
It could very easily lead people down the wrong path.
Take Chris, for instance, who in the season finale was revealed to be the son of Donny Osmond. For some inexplicable reason, during Episode 7, the contestants became convinced that Chris was related to Elton John. At this point, they knew Chris’ relative was from Utah, had a Las Vegas residency and wore an “amazing colored dream coat.” All signs pointed to Osmond, but they latched on to the idea of Sir Elton John and his colorful outfits.
And then they turned to the clue wall. There, they found a piano and an astronaut. John is the Rocket Man, they figured. This evidence was apparently enough for them to toss the Utah tidbit to the wayside and make the official guess that Chris was related to John.
It would be one of many wildly incorrect guesses on the show.
Earlier in the season, contestants had also debated the astronaut and bee clues on the wall potentially referencing Buzz Aldrin, although the bee most likely pointed to Osmond, who hails from the Beehive State. And you could easily argue that the piano belonged to Cole, who was revealed to be Alicia Keys’ sister, and the astronaut to Carly, the niece of “Apollo 13” star Tom Hanks.
In the end, the clue wall really wasn’t all that helpful.
But at least one clue on that wall was not at all ambiguous. And if the contestants had been able to identify it, Chris probably would not have made it to the finale.
Because the Angel Moroni was so clearly a clue about Donny Osmond.
A statue of the Angel Moroni sits atop many temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Osmond’s faith. While the “Claim to Fame” contestants noted it from time to time, they never cracked the clue.
“So nobody figured out the Angel Moroni on that board,” Chris Osmond recently told the Deseret News. “And even to this day, I don’t think they still even know what that is. But they did say, ‘Oh, it’s like an angel! Or is it a trophy? Almost like an Emmy Award? A Grammy?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah! Sure!’”
Other clues weren’t as obvious to Chris. The mask, he said, could have referenced his father, who was on Season 1 of “The Masked Singer.” But it also could’ve referenced Olivia, the niece of “Masked Singer” judge Jenny McCarthy, or Gabriel, the brother of “Masked Singer” host Nick Cannon.
“I think all the clues up on that board, I probably didn’t even know half of them were connected to my dad,” Osmond said. “Even to this day, there are probably some clues there that I never connected.”
But he’s positive about the Angel Moroni clue.
“The No. 1 identifying factor to my dad is being LDS, and that’s my identity, too,” Osmond said.
This did present a slight challenge whenever contestants drank on the show — Osmond said he usually had cranberry juice, water or soda. When they asked Osmond why he didn’t drink, he had to be careful. Saying something about his faith could be a clue or, possibly, a dead giveaway.
So he gave a more vague response and told them he abstained for health reasons.
“They respected that and I think that’s a common thing, even outside of (the Latter-day Saint faith), that being sober is an accepted thing these days,” Osmond said.
But considering the Angel Moroni went over the “Claim to Fame” contestants’ heads — not to mention the fact that they apparently don’t know who is from Utah — there’s a good chance Osmond could’ve revealed his faith and still made it all the way to the finale.
“It got super stressful, not gonna lie, at the very end,” Osmond said. “When you get really close to the end ... nobody can trust each other. So you ended up on your own at the very end, which was hard. But I think in the grand scheme of things, the overall experience, I would definitely do it over and over again.”