Fame attack : the inflation of celebrity and its consequences

209 Pages·2012·1.67 MB·English

by  Rojek, Chris

Fame Attack
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Fame Attack
The Infl ation of Celebrity
and Its Consequences
Chris Rojek
B L O O M S B U R Y A C A D E M I C
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First published in 2012 by
Bloomsbury Academic
an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP, UK
and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
Copyright © Chris Rojek 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can
be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
CIP records for this book are available from the British Library and the
Library of Congress
ISBN 978-1-84966-071-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-84966-072-3 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-84966-804-0 (ebook PDF)
This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed,
sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and
manufacturing processes conform to the Environmental regulations
of the country of origin.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group, Bodmin, Cornwall
Cover image © Miramiska/Shutterstock
www.bloomsburyacademic.com
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Contents
Preface: The New Aristocracy of Fame vii
1 Celebrity Supernova 1
2 The Fame Formula 27
3 Celebrity and Sickness 35
4 Charisma Gulch 58
5 Exposure Management 78
6 Supply Side Factors in Celebrity Infl ation 88
7 Demand Side Factors 98
8 Para-social Relationships 123
9 The Icarus Complex 142
10 Reality TV: The Return of the Fool 161
11 The Sphinx of Celebrity and the Idolatry Funfair 173
Notes 186
Bibliography 191
Author Index 195
Subject Index 196
[ v ]
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As for fame, consider ... that as one heap of sand
thrown upon another covers the fi rst, so it happens in life,
a new glory soon eclipses an old one
Marcus Aurelius, ‘Meditations’
Who are the men, who, without our realizing it, give us ideas,
tell us whom to admire and whom to despise, what to believe
about ... how our houses should be designed, what furniture we
should put into them, what menus we should serve at our table,
what kind of shirts we must wear, what sports we should indulge
in, what plays we should see, what charities we should support,
what pictures we should admire, what slang we should affect,
what jokes we should laugh at?
Edward Bernays
Stars are recorded people
John Castles
The quest for power is, as we have seen, a protection against
helplessness and against insignifi cance. This latter function it
shares with the quest for prestige. The neurotic that falls in this
group develops a stringent need to impress others, to be admired
and respected. He will have fantasies of impressing others with
beauty or intelligence or with some outstanding accomplishment;
he will spend money lavishly and conspicuously ... He will not be
able to have anyone as a friend, husband, wife, employee, who
does not admire him. His entire self-esteem rests on being admired,
and shrinks to nothingness if he does not receive admiration
Karen Horney
Fame is not a normal state of affairs for the human being.
It takes a lot of strength and a lot of patience and a tremendous
amount of reality checks to live through something like being
The Fonz [his character on Happy Days]. But if you get
caught up in it, it will eventually cut you in half
Henry Winkler
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Preface: The New Aristocracy
of Fame
I
n the a ncien régime , unbowed insistence upon being judged by title in
precedence to deeds was the downfall of monarchy. Charles I in England and
Louis XIV in France were executed ultimately because public opinion ceased
to accept their divine right to rule. Charles and Louis were a scribed celebrities .
That is their fame and infl uence derived from bloodline and was supported by
Court protocol and precedent. As industrialization and democracy began to take
root, the principle of the divine right of kings started to be openly rejected.
The social, economic, cultural and political forces in question are complex. It is
an oversimplifi cation to propose that all vestiges of ascribed celebrity have been
swept aside by the ascendant power of industry and democracy. The wedding
of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011 dominated the global media and
transfi xed the public. But it should be recalled that it was a marriage between the
heir to the throne and a commoner. Blue blood does not run in the veins of Kate
Middleton. Her father worked as an airline steward, and later as a fl ight dispatcher,
for British Airways, and her mother was an airline stewardess.1
The marriage illustrates nicely the reframing of celebrity culture since the time
of Charles I and Louis XIV. It is not just that people from ordinary backgrounds
now have the chance to marry into royalty; rather it is that, if this occurs, they
become media fl ypaper for stories, features, rumours, op-ed pieces, interviews and
photo spreads. Their views may be no more substantial or insightful than any other
offspring of airline handling staff. Nonetheless, they command the world’s headlines
and gradually come to the conclusion that they have an entitlement to do so.
It might be thought that a chieved celebrity is inherently positive. For it replaces
an aristocratic order in which birthright is all, with a more open society in which rank
ceases to be the primary metric of fame. Ascribed celebrities are famous for their
reputations ; achieved celebrities are famous for their deeds . Oh happy land in which
such a distribution of fame comes to pass! In fact, the age of achieved celebrity
has produced a new aristocracy of fame. It consists of stars who are elevated
on to the public horizon and who stay there not so much by virtue of their deeds,
but by the power of the PR-Media hub behind them. Little has been written about
[ vii ]
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[ viii ] Preface
the relationship of this power hub with celebrity culture. 2 Yet the PR-Media hub is
fundamental.
Long ago, in ‘The Defence of Poetry’ (1821), Shelley claimed that ‘poets are
the unacknowledged legislators of the world’. Now that privilege has transferred to
features line staff, news producers, current affairs editors and TV presenters. The
reality TV show impresarios Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell possess the power
to present three-minute attractions that overshadow news about unrest in the
Middle East, child poverty, hunger in Africa, irregularities in the banking system and
youth drug addiction. They preside over a setting in the media that has become an
idolatry funfair, spinning insubstantial idols today, only to cast them aside for similar
plastic replacements tomorrow. Celebrities are the kings and queens of satellite and
terrestrial ‘soft news’ shows that give audiences headlines and sound bites instead
of analysis (Baum, 2007; Castells, 2009: 328). While this is a source of disquiet in
the serious media, it is not really an issue for students of popular culture. For it is
how the majority of them get their news. News and stories of bona fi de achieved
celebrities, who have acquired fame by virtue of their talents and accomplishments,
are treated as equivalent to sound bites from contestants on Pop Idol and
The X Factor or the latest reality TV shenanigans. For many of our fellow citizens,
celebrity media news is the only news that matters. It is easy to dismiss these
developments as insignifi cant and symptomatic of deeper problems in the culture.
It is a mistake to do so.
Celebrity culture is functional. That is it has functions for the people that produce
it and for the people that receive it. ‘Celebrity images,’ writes Chris Hedges ‘are
refl ections of our idealized selves sold back to us’ (Hedges, 2009: 48). In the age
of ascribed celebrities, kings and queens presented themselves as the patriarchs
and matriarchs of the people. One of the cardinal principles of monarchy was that
the best that is in us is present a thousandfold in them. The new aristocracy of fame
provides round-the-clock escapism and a light blusher of life-coaching that offer the
comfort of distinction and the illusion of wisdom.
Yet while the media is often censorious and dismissive about the cultural
illiteracy of celebrity culture – so biting the hand that feeds them, one might say – it
knocks against an open door. Audiences are addicted to celebrities. They mainline
on the aura of celebrity and rummage through the media for truffl es of stardom.
A product endorsement from a leading golfer or fashion model can add millions to
the balance sheet. Celebrity TV confessions and memories of rehab are devoured
as unimpeachable oracles of how to cope with stress, manage adversity and
get ahead. Achieved superstars like Bono, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Ben
Affl eck and Leonardo DiCaprio now take a prominent role in global humanitarianism.
It is not enough any longer merely to entertain. Leading celebrities must now save
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Preface [ ix ]
the world by establishing charity foundations, do fi eldwork in the world’s hotspots
and browbeat presidents and prime ministers to do their bit.
It would be perverse to deny celebrities the right to care, or to label them all as
fakes. All the same, the aspiration for one person to save the world suggests a
degree of self-importance that borders on megalomania. Who elected these people
to speak for ‘us’? What accountability do we have over them? The public is perfectly
able to spot a dud when it sees one. A celebrity who has used skulduggery and
other dirty tricks to enter the aristocracy of fame is not treated kindly in the court of
public opinion. Yet modern men and women have boundless susceptibility to show
faith in fakes.
This book is about the colonization of celebrity culture in everyday life. It
examines how the fads, fashions and preoccupations of celebrities enter the
popular lifeblood. It explores what is distinctive about contemporary celebrity and
evaluates the psychological, social, economic and physical consequences of fame
aristocracy upon both stars and stargazers. It tries to be philosophical about fame.
The aristocracy of fame is with us for a reason. Even the best of us need someone
to look up to, while the worst are content to get by with a hand mirror and a personal
journal. Yet when the culture of fame breaks the balance between emotion and
reason, when reality becomes boring, and when millions wear the hairdos, parrot
the catchphrases and ape the opinions of stars who are mostly staged illusions, it is
impossible for serious people not to conclude that something is amiss. To dismiss
celebrity as trivial is to see ourselves and the world through blinkers. F ame Attack is
not just about ‘them’, it is about ‘us’.

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