The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex [Paperback]

Maureen Orth (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0805078479 | ISBN-13: 978-0805078473 | Publication Date: April 14, 2005

"The book achieves a fresh spin thanks to incisive updates and story-behind-the-story anecdotes, all peppered with the author's pull-no-punches observations."-People

Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth covers lives led in public, on camera, at the very top-from Margaret Thatcher to Tina Turner, from the political theater of the Clinton White House to the strange kingdom of Princess Diana's almost father-in-law. Now this National Magazine Award-winning reporter pulls back the curtain to reveal those who flourish (or sometimes flame out) at these heady altitudes, unraveling their complex lives and exploring the chemistry, the very DNA, of celebrity today.

The Importance of Being Famous is a portrait of an era where the media grew larger, the distinction between fame and infamy grew smaller, and celebrity ruled all. Orth delivers a revealing, sophisticated look at the big room of modern celebrity and the star-making machinery of the "celebrity-industrial complex."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vanity Fair columnist Orth calls the world of celebrity a war zone of million-dollar monsters and million-dollar spin. She proves her thesis through a series of lacerating essays and interviews exposing personalities who'll "sacrifice everything including, sometimes, their lives, to be famous." Orth views the Laci Peterson saga as America's number one reality soap opera and examines the media's hysterical need to provide alternative scenarios about the case just to keep the story in the news. The author is witty, probing and painfully candid in her sympathetic piece about the violence Tina Turner suffered under Ike Turner's brutal control, but argues that Turner endured the beatings so long because of her own desire to be successful. Orth also uses icons Judy Garland, Madonna and Michael Jackson as examples of stars who portray themselves as victims to hold the limelight. The need for fame encompasses a "contact high," demonstrated by money manager Dana Giacchetto, who was convicted for defrauding his "less famous accountsâ€"the A-minus or B-plus listâ€"so as not to lose face with the A-plusers." Even more grisly is Orth's account of Andrew Cunahan, who shot Gianni Versace and then himself, hoping for worldwide attention and immortality. Orth dissects such diverse personalities as Margaret Thatcher, Woody Allen, Karl Lagerfeld and, poignantly, Dame Margot Fonteyn, who sadly reflects, "I have lived my life in what I call the empty hotel room." Orth combines merciless clarity with compassion in analyzing her power-hungry and tragic subjects.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Orth's first book, Vulgar Favors (1999), offered a perceptive look at serial killer Andrew Cunanan and the society that nurtured him. Her follow-up provides an equally perceptive look at celebrities and the society that nurtures them. Collecting a number of her Vanity Fair essays (with new bridging material), the book takes us inside the worlds of such notables as singer Tina Turner, author Arianna Huffington, Sein Fein president Gerry Adam, and, again, murderer Cunanan. The book's variety reinforces the idea that celebrity has many meanings, and Orth's work--in-depth, broad ranging, free of sensationalism--reminds us that the celebrity profile doesn't have to be a fawning puff piece. One of the essays here reconnects nicely to today's headlines: a 1994 profile of Michael Jackson discussing the child-molestation charge that was pending against him then. Ultimately, though, this book doesn't need to rely on current events to make its mark. Orth's subject is the phenomenon of celebrity, an ever-newsworthy topic, and her graceful handling of it should ensure a wide readership. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (April 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805078479
• ISBN-13: 978-0805078473
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,932,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fame Defrocked, June 8, 2004

By 

Judith Iglehart (Piedmont, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex (Hardcover)

A fun read. Maureen Orth opens the door to the surreal world of celebrity and invites us in. The world she describes places most celebrities and others enjoying their "15 minutes" in their own personal Wonderlands, places most often resembling cuckoo's nests. Thanks to Orth, those curious about famous lives can push aside the curtains of wealth and power and then withdraw--thankful that most of those profiled are not part of our lives. Orth's contention that so many of the famous became newsworthy due to the media's insatiable need to provide coverage 24/7 gives us permission to avoid the news occassionally in the interest of tuning down the fame volume.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I am the only person who did not like this book?, June 7, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex (Hardcover)

I was greatly disappointed by this book. I expected it to be a serious study of fame and what people do to get it. Instead, it was a series of old Vanity Fair articles strung together in a book. Some people were interesting but most many were boring people that no one really wants to read about.

I hate that I paid $17.50 for it and hope my bad review does not drive down the resale value as I try to get rid of it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maureen orth's new book., May 9, 2004

By 

Greg Lang (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex (Hardcover)

More than a century ago at the trial of Lizzy Borden the relatively new telegraph was used to describe the latest trial details which made for a special late edition of the "yellow press". A few decades later at the Scopes monkey trial the newfangled telephone was utilized to broadcast trial reports "live from the courtroom" to radio throughout the country. The Symbionese Liberation Army May 1974 Los Angeles shootout was broadcast live on 160 TV stations due to advances in microwave relay and satellite technology.

The OJ Simpson trial was the first "trial of the century" that heavily involved cable TV, which had become widespread by then, DNA whose use was coming into wide use and the Internet where details of the OJ case could be detailed without a news filter, for better or worse. In college I had worked at the school library and enjoyed reading the different take on the same story in different publications. The Internet offered this with a few keystrokes.

All of the above examples were natural phenomenons where everything converged. Maureen Orth, in her new book tells various ways that the various media try to find the next "grand convergence" or get one going. Would the Laci Peterson case been covered so heavily if those involved had been less photogenic and more camera shy?

As with the "yellow press" using a teaser headline on the Lizzy Borden trial to sell "extra editions" of their rag, our modern day tabloids see their sales increase substantially when they have cover headline with some Laci Peterson angle even if this printed story has very little substance. Cable talk shows use the same "grabbers" which is usually a pop psychology tripe.

Usually, the media "circus" comes to town and when it leaves the media story ends. Ms Orth is in for the long haul. She has covered Micheal Jackson for more than a decade and has been remarkably prophetic and accurate. I first developed an interest in Ms Orth with the Andrew Cunanen case which began here in my hometown of Minneapolis. When I read Orth's first book on the Cunanan case Vulgar Favors I spotted a lot of locations and people, mostly in law enforcement, in the book. Ms Orth strives for accuracy over "political correctness". Obviously Andrew Cunanen wasn't a poster child for gays but the vast majority of gays portrayed in that book were perfectly decent people caught up and sometimes hurt by the maelstrom around the Cunanen case. (Ironically, the Minneapolis gay press was trying to use the Cunanen case to highlight recreational drug dangers in the gay community when the mainstream press dared not mention that Cunanen was gay when they named two lovers with obviously male names.)

Ms. Orth's new books is a very good read and it helps to understand the new media environment. She gives hope by showing the patterns and techniques used so readers and writers can find these and react productively. At a recent talk to journalism students Ms Orth challenged: "When they show that picture of Micheal Jackson on the hood of a car after a court appearance use that as a lead in for telling the signs of pedophilia.

This phase of media insanity caused by new technology will hopefully pass as they have in the past. It will take time and a lot of mistakes. Reading The Importance of Being Famous will help you understand it sooner and it' a very entertaining read since Orth is an excellent and very readable writer. I highly recommend this book.