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Reality show producer and former agent Jamie Gold is currently the chip leader at the World Series of Poker No Limit Hold 'Em Championship in Vegas, but he's terrified of winning—not because he's afraid of the millions of dollars he'd take home, as an agent's moneylust never truly fades, but rather because he fears the fame that a victory will bring. In an interview with ESPN.com, Gold explains why the idea of instant celebrity is so frightening that he openly muses about taking a dive into second place:

"I don't want it,'' Gold said. "I've seen what it's done to other people. I've worked with actors from James Gandolfini to Felicity Huffman to Lucy Liu.

"Gandolfini wanted nothing to do with fame. If you notice before 'The Sopranos,' he never did a movie that put him in the spotlight. He never did Jay Leno. He never did an interview. He never talked to the press. He didn't want any of it. He couldn't stand it because he knew what would happen to his life.

"He got in an accident in New York City and someone walked over to him and said something like, 'Well, you're Tony Soprano, so you don't need any help.' Craziness. It's insane.."

It's not too hard to understand why a behind-the-scenes player (or anyone who's even fleetingly considered a messy suicide upon hearing an actress discuss who she's wearing on the red carpet) like Gold would eschew the spotlight, but we think there might be a deeper psychological explanation for his fame-phobia revealed by the Gandolfini story. Namely, Gold fears that if he's crossing the street in Beverly Hills and he's struck by a Lexus, a bystander will rush to his side, recognize him as a onetime agent, then leave him for dead.