Celebrity and the Media

Sean Redmond

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780230292680
• eBook ISBN: 9781350306417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

An engaging introduction to the key terms, concepts, dilemmas and issues that are central to the study and critical understanding of celebrity, exploring the impacts of celebrity culture on the modern media and examining the influence that celebrity has on the way people place themselves in the modern world.

1

The Celebrity Metronome

I am on the treadmill at the gym trying to loose fat, increase my muscle, and harden my body like a wrestling Mickey Rourke. In front of me are a row of plasma TV screens all switched to different channels with their sound turned off. On each and every channel there is a celebrity show being aired: Judge Judy, E! News, an action flick starring Bruce Willis, a cable cosmetics show fronted by a television personality I know the face of but not the name, a Rihanna music video, an episode of Two and a Half Men, a local news bulletin anchored by a celebrity journalist, and a replay of a Barcelona soccer game where the demi-god, Lionel Messi, scores a hat-trick.

As I run my eyes switch from one screen to the next, glancing at the row of celebrity figures before me. As my pace quickens, the TV screens take on the enchanted form of a celebrity metronome, my own perception caught in a regular and regulated swing. I see modern life itself griped by the metronome’s fixed beat, by the quiet pulse of auratic bodies that fill the swinging screens. I see the celebrity metronome beating across all of time and space, bringing to the world the ‘everywhere’ of celebrity culture. This I tell myself is the age of the celebrity metronome. And I run more quickly.

I Will Always Love you

Ask yourself these framing questions about Whitney Houston’s death on 11 February 2011:

How did you first hear about her death?

Where did you go to confirm the details, to learn more about the tragic event?

Was it through Facebook or Twitter, on a mobile device as you travelled through town?

How did you respond, who did you talk to, or where did you post about her death?

Where did you hear her songs being played and images of her celebrity circulated?

Did her songs sound out on radios, tablets, and mobile phones; in shopping malls; and on music channels, so that her soprano voice seemed to permeate all around you ?

Did you follow the outcry that greeted Sony raising the download price of Whitney’s anthem, I Will Always Love You ?

What type of narrative about her life emerged across the media?

How was Bobby Brown portrayed?

Were race, drugs, and religion a core part of the rise-and-fall narrative trajectory employed to define Houston’s life and death?

What types of emotional reactions did the media countenance?

Did you feel moved or manipulated by the media representation of her death?

Why did she dominate the news, the front pages of magazines, tribute shows, the posts and tweets that rolled off Facebook and Twitter over the period from her death to her funeral?

Why did Whitney Houston’s death seem to matter?

For the most part, in answering these questions you will see that Houston encapsulates what celebrity involves, and how it functions like a mechanical metronome moving in and between media platforms, social interactions, and ritualised events, with similar stories, representations, reactions, and emotions being aligned and activated. In a very real sense, Whitney’s death is produced, scripted, given a media representation, and is understood to be felt in particular heightened ways by fans and consumers.

Whitney Houston’s death might be best described as a concentrated ‘flashpoint’ event when ‘a particular celebrity completely dominates media coverage, producing an excessively focused global public’ (Turner, Bonner, and Marshall, 2000: 6). For example, on the day of her death The Sun (News international, UK) newspaper led with, ‘TROUBLED superstar Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel room bath after two nights of heavy partying, it has been claimed’, while Fox News reported, ‘Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behaviour and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday night. She was 48’. Both reports set in motion how Houston’s death will be framed and represented: talent and success wrecked by addiction and abuse; a rise-and-fall trajectory that involves the recognition of her greatness followed by grandiosity, wayward diva behaviour and a doomed relationship with a fellow star (Bobby Brown), racially stereotyped as the ‘bad buck’ of the piece.

Such was the significance given to her death by the media, and such was the concentration by them on fan identification and the subsequent mourning period, that Houston became the centre point of news and current affairs discourse. The coverage focused on personal tragedy, and confessional and affective responses, as it was imagined to have impacted upon Houston, and on the people touched by her death. In fact, at this time one would have had to disconnect from the social world not to have met or perhaps felt Whitney’s death so pervasive was the media coverage and the call for common communion.

Celebrity matters because it exists so centrally to the way we communicate and are understood to communicate with one another in the modern world. Celebrity culture involves the transmission of power relations, is connected to identity formation and notions of shared belonging; and it circulates in commercial revenue streams and in an international context where celebrated people are seen not to be bound by national borders or geographical prisms.

The notion of celebrity, of whom might be a celebrity, and of the issues, concerns, and pleasures that it raises are readily accessible to everyday conversation. People willingly give their opinions on celebrity in all sorts of political, social, and domestic contexts. In fact, if one was able to tune one’s ear into café and bar conversations, mealtimes at work, playground huddles, radio broadcasts, the chatter of the social media; or if one was to hone one’s eyes onto bedroom walls, magazine-filled coffee tables, designer and perfumery shops, all manner of goods and services, and the broad output of television and cinema, then one would find celebrity sounded out and visualised large. And this sounding is like the constant beat of a metronome, and this vision is like its regulated swing.

The material and cultural evidence of celebrity, then, is everywhere to be seen and heard. For example, as of the 30 May 2012, Lady Gaga had 25 million fans (her ‘Little Monsters’) following her daily tweets. She tweeted: ‘#25milliontweetymonsters wow! I’m officially feeling like the luckiest girl in the world today’. These little monsters cross age, gender, class, and race boundaries; they come from all four corners of the world; and the interaction with Gaga fulfils significant individual and cultural needs, particularly around the theme of alienation and disenfranchisement since she proclaims that she looks after, and speaks to and for, the marginalised in society.

Celebrity exists at the centre of media and cultural life. It is found in the political arena, the literary circuit, and the boardrooms of big business and software companies. Celebrity is found wherever elevated figures can be foregrounded as heightened, charismatic, and talented people who warrant or demand our attention, and who can speak to or embody the needs, desires, and fears that sit at the core of modern life. The question of what celebrity constitutes is seemingly an easy one to answer and yet beneath its obviousness lays a deeper and more complex set of issues, debates, and dilemmas. This is a monograph dedicated to exploring the vexing but fascinating intricacies of celebrity culture. Journey with me.

What Is Celebrity? I Am (Not) Celebrity

If one was to visit any high street in almost any part of the industrialised world today and asked ‘ordinary’ people the question, ‘what is celebrity’, there would be general agreement to the answers given: they are famous people; you see them in films, on the television, on YouTube; and out in public, often at glamorous events. You can read about them online, and in magazines, fanzines, and newspapers. They are often connected to brands, and advertising campaigns, for any number of products and services. A celebrity is someone that for the most part leads a glamorous and wealthy life, and they are especially talented. Or, alternatively, they are undeserving of their fame, simply being well-known for being well-known (Boorstin, 1992). One can watch celebrities perform in their site-specific talent arena such as the concert hall or sports stadium, or at a red carpet entrance on a film’s gala opening night. One can follow their lives through biographies and diaries, and in real time, at any time, through the social media. This ubiquity and proximity allows fans to get to intimately know a celebrity and to interact with, and gossip about, them. Celebrities are desirable and desiring; they exist as models of perfection, and yet they are also often damaged, toxic figures that are immoral models of imperfection and consequently are bad for us in some way. There is too much of them, since celebrities dominate the news and as such ‘trivialise current affairs’ (Gitlin, 1997: 35).

In asking ordinary people what is celebrity, one would undoubtedly reveal that there is a great deal of cultural knowledge about what it constitutes, that it has major political, economic, and cultural ramifications, and that it exists in a sea of contradictions and tensions. The opinions on celebrity would be proven to swing this way, then that, forming a metronome modulating inside of people, shaping their perception of what the modern world means to them. Everyone has an opinion on celebrity since it is the actual material out of which contemporary life is experienced and understood, for better or for worse.

In academic terms, the term celebrity is used to define a person whose name, image, lifestyle, and opinions carry cultural and economic worth, and who are first and foremost idealised popular media constructions. According to Rein, Kotler, and Stoller, ‘a celebrity is a name which once made by the news, now makes news by itself’ (1997: 14). Celebrities exist in the eye of the media, are often adored by their fans, and are valuable commodities in terms of their use and exchange value. They are ‘idols of consumption’ (Lowenthal, 1961), and promote the purchasing of commodities through lifestyle choices and product endorsement.

For example, Charlize Theron is an A-listed Hollywood film star who attracts funding for any film project she is connected with, and in turn has a fan base who will go to see the films that she appears in. After the Oscar-nominated success of Monster (Jenkins, 2003), Theron earned $10,000,000 for starring in both North Country (Caro, 2005) and Aeon Flux (Kusama, 2005). According to The Hollywood Reporter’s 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, she ranked seventh, behind Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon, and Nicole Kidman. The average gross of her films is $28,935,398.

Theron has a pre-constituted star image that suggests certain repeat behaviours and values; she brings to her starring film roles performative promises and these are raised as expectations by the marketing machinery and through the way her fans consume her. At the level of signification, Theron registers as an idealised white female beauty (a blonde bombshell) but she is also represented as feminist and authorial. Theron is both to-be-looked-at and takes on challenging roles and gives authentic, realist performances. She stars in Hollywood blockbusters such as Hancock (Berg, 2008), which operate through a desiring gaze of her body, and she takes roles in films such as North Country (Caro, 2005), which define her as an activist, fighting injustice and (sexual) harassment.

Theron is readily reported on, her public and private life a constant newsworthy source in the popular media. Again, this is bifurcated coverage. On the one hand her support for and commitment to women’s rights, animal welfare, and same-sex marriage is well documented. On the other hand, she is reported on through the lens of sexual objectification and fascination. For example, when her mobile phone was hacked and ‘nude’ pictures were circulated in 2012, Theron’s identity was sexualised even if this was under the mask of media indignation.

In terms of commercial sponsorship, Theron’s endorsements centre on products that make use of her beauty and glamour. She advertises Dior perfume (signed 2004), Uniqlo Heattech’s designer clothes (signed 2010), and was associated with Raymond Weil’s luxurious Swiss watches (2005–2006), appearing in a series of adverts that connected her elegance and beauty with the product in question. For all these global products, Theron is represented to be glamorous, sensual, and, with the Dior brand, particularly sexual.

For the j’adore Dior campaign, in one notable magazine advert, a bronzed Theron emerges from a golden sea, as she strides towards the imagined reader. Her blonde hair is swept back, and wet, and the golden, strapless dress she is wearing reveals her flawless skin. Her hourglass body shape, and the perfected sensuous symmetry of her body, is meant to mirror the perfume, the perfume bottle, which occupies the right corner of the image-advert. Theron is ‘made’ of it, is found in the perfume’s very essence; in this advert there is a shared sexual chemistry constituted as a sexual fantasy enveloping perfume and celebrity.

Theron, then, exists in all the interconnecting sheets that define celebrity, linking identity, desire, gender perfection, emulation, news, gossip, and commodification across the texts and contexts we find her represented in. She is the epitome of a certain type of celebrity.

Celebrity Types

According to Chris Rojek (2001), one can divide celebrities into distinctive types. First, there is ascribed celebrity based on lineage and ‘whose status typically follows from blood-line’ (17). Members of royalty, the aristocracy, and heirs and heiresses have ascribed celebrity status. Second, there is achieved celebrity which ‘derives from the perceived accomplishments of the individual in open competition’ (18), and which would include film stars, pop stars, sports stars, leading artists, inventors, elite scientists, and grand philanthropists. Third, there is attributed celebrity, which is, ‘largely the result of the concentrated representation of an individual as noteworthy or exceptional by cultural intermediaries’ (18). Reporters, publicists, photographers, personal trainers, and chat show hosts, amongst others, highlight these attributed individuals because of single acts of bravery, invention, difference, certitude, and honour. Or else, their accumulative extraordinary actions and activities are considered to warrant attention and reporting on. Attributed celebrity can also emerge because of what are considered to be heinous acts and infamous behaviour, such as the atrocities undertaken by a serial killer. Fourth, there is the celetoid, which is ‘any form of compressed, concentrated attributed celebrity’ (21). For Rojek,

The desire for fame now far exceeds talent, accomplishment or skill. The upshot of the present condition is the emergence of the celetoid : a person who acquires short, intense bursts of media time simply by dint of being recognized by TV producers as coveting and chasing fame in a sufficiently determined way. (2009)

The ‘accidental celebrity’ (Turner, Bonner, and Marshall, 2000) would also fall into this category of the celetoid. Thrust into the limelight because of an incident or event outside of their control, they become newsworthy for a distinctly limited period of time.

For example, in January 2009, Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger became an accidental celebrity when he landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after its engine had stalled after hitting a flock of geese on take off. Sully was thrust into the media spotlight and heralded a hero for his successful landing of the aircraft. Stories about his training, his family life, and his American-born ‘exceptionalism’ dominated the US news outlets, culminating in him being ranked second in Time magazine’s ‘Top 100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons of 2009’. Accidental celebrities are generally ephemeral, the length and reach of their fame limited to the size of the accidental event that first thrusts them into the spotlight.

Questioning Types: Fusion Figures

The idea of celebrity types is, nonetheless, a problematic one, not least because one can argue that celebrities always exist as blended constructions where their status and discursive meaning constantly shifts depending on context, event, and media specificity. Prince William has ascribed celebrity status as a member of the British Royal family, and this is particularly represented as such during state ceremonies and official engagements. However, he also has attributed celebrity status in relation to his skills as a flight lieutenant with the Search and Rescue Force. His six-week tour of the Falklands was widely reported in terms of heroic duty. Finally, prior to his marriage to Katy Middleton, Prince William was a regular feature of the tabloid press in terms of his playboy ways and wild partying. He was in effect, in this representational stream, a celetoid. And yet not quite, it is the conjunction of ascribed and attributed status, situated in textual and contextual environments, that render celebrities such as Prince William fusion figures, where ritualised events and specific media sites foreground particular aspects and qualities of the fêted individual in question.

Star Struck

There is also the issue of media and role specificity that complicates the taxonomy of celebrity types. The film, sports, and rock star may well need their own celebrity categories because of the way they signify and are culturally positioned, while the television personality can be understood to be a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. The Celebrity Metronome
• 2. Seeing the Celebrity Image
• 3. Buying Celebrity
• 4. Selling Celebrity
• 5. Everyday Celebrity
• 6. The Loneliness Room
• Epilogue: I am Celebrity
• Bibliography
• Index