Starstruck: The Business of Celebrity [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 9, 2010

How was Nike able to take a gamble on an unknown Michael Jordan and transform itself from a $900 million company to a $9.19 billion company in less than fifteen years? Why did the artist Jeff Koons’s Balloon Flower (Magenta) sell for a record $25.7 million in 2008? What does the high school football star have in common with the Hollywood headliner? And why should an actor never, ever go to Las Vegas?

Celebrity—our collective fascination with particular people—is everywhere and takes many forms, from the sports star, notorious Wall Street tycoon, or film icon, to the hometown quarterback, YouTube sensation, or friend who compulsively documents his life on the Internet. We follow with rapt attention all the minute details of stars’ lives: their romances, their spending habits, even how they drink their coffee. For those anointed, celebrity can translate into big business and top social status, but why do some attain stardom while millions of others do not? Why are we simply more interested in certain people?

In Starstruck, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett presents the first rigorous exploration of celebrity, arguing that our desire to “celebrate” some people and not others has profound implications, elevating social statuses, making or breaking careers and companies, and generating astronomical dividends. Tracing the phenomenon from the art world to tabletop gaming conventions to the film industry, Currid-Halkett looks at celebrity as an expression of economics, geography (both real and virtual), and networking strategies.

Starstruck brings together extensive statistical research and analysis, along with interviews with top agents and publicists, YouTube executives, major art dealers and gallery directors, Bollywood players, and sports experts. Laying out the enormous impact of the celebrity industry and identifying the patterns by which individuals become stars, Currid-Halkett successfully makes the argument that celebrity is an important social phenomenon and a driving force in the worldwide economy.   

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Currid-Halkett (The Warhol Economy) takes a tasty subject and rehashes it into sawdust in her repetitive study of celebrity. She dissects the collective fascination with some people over others, postulating that our preference for watching television and surfing the Internet over actual engagement has created a public lonelier than ever but with free, instant access to indulge our voyeuristic tendencies. Analyzing the appeal of personalities as disparate as Paris Hilton and Bill Gates, she concludes unremarkably that celebrity has little to do with talent or fame, but with an unquantifiable light recognized and exploited by those whose livelihoods depend on star-based revenue, including the media. Having made this point, the remainder of the book is reiteration, supported with diagrams and tables that seem unnecessary in supporting the incontrovertible conclusion that celebrity ultimately hinges on whether we decide to pay attention or not. A glimmer of interest flares on the penultimate page of the book, when Currid-Halkett observes that, on the whole many of us care far more about Aniston' s latte than the thousands being murdered in Sudan, a more puzzling phenomenon that could have proved a more promising focus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this insightful exploration of modern-day celebrity, Currid-Halkett, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, delves into what exactly it is that makes a person a celebrity—and why the general public cares so much about them. Comparing socialite Paris Hilton and actress Tara Reid, Currid-Halkett investigates what makes one party girl a media darling while the other is relegated to being a laughingstock. Celebrity is a relative term: a master gamer is just as big a deal in his community of fellow gamers as Angelina Jolie is to the millions of moviegoers who follow both her career and love life. Currid-Halkett shows that at its heart, celebrity is very much a business, employing countless talent managers, agents, and publicists, and selling magazines to a public eager for juicy gossip about who Jennifer Aniston is dating or the latest exploits of their favorite reality star. Anyone who has ever thumbed through an issue of US Weekly will appreciate this lively, accessible account of the effects of celebrity on popular culture. --Kristine Huntley

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; First Edition (1 in number line) edition (November 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865479097
• ISBN-13: 978-0865479098
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Starstruck - Elizabeth Currid-Halkett (Faber and Faber) February 24, 2011

By BlogOnBooks

Format:Hardcover

You've seen all the pictures, heard all the paparazzi stories, seen an endless barrage of photos of celebs posing in front of and endless array of sponsored step-and-repeat red carpet backdrops. But have you ever wondered about the actual business of being a celebrity? Well, "Starstruck: The Business of Celebrity", is a book that takes you behind the scenes of the real business of celebrification (yes, we made that word up) revealing what matters to whom and why. Did you know there is a rating system for determining celebrity "heat'? Do you know the difference between the A-listers (Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie) and the residual celebs (Paris Hilton, Carmen Electra), those who have to work at being famous rather than letting their onscreen work speak for itself. Does it sometimes all seem a bit circular?

From editors to airmiles, Currid-Halkett (an associate professor at USC) takes the wraps off the real world of the celebrity business - sometimes in a very data driven fashion - showing how it is much less spontaneous and more cut-throat than it might appear from a random glance at the supermarket tabloids. In its 310 pages "Starstruck" explores all the nitty-gritty; from the role of the publicist (some who make a reported twenty grand a month per client) to the studios to event planners to the ultimate lifeblood of the media itself, every aspect of the power struggle is exposed. Techniques like the "write-around" (when a journalist can't get a direct interview), the L.A. vs. NY thing (stay away from Vegas, baby) to the often uncontrollable world of social networks and the internet are discussed in an intelligent, cohesive manner that sheds light on the various factors pushing and pulling the fast-paced world of celebrity media.

Although the book primarily covers the here and now, it also looks back on the recent past where publicists held sway over who would get an interview and what the rules of engagement would be. (The Pat Kinsley/Tom Cruise relationship being a prime example of who gets access and who does not.) In the final analysis, "Starstruck" is a look behind the curtain of the trials and tribulations of the business of the beautiful people, where despite the spotlight, flash bulbs and glamour on the outside, the side you don't see is not always a pretty sight.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read with Fascinating Facts November 23, 2010

By MMoore

Format:Hardcover

I thought it was a terrific book that really allows the reader to grasp the intricacies behind the business of celebrity without sounding like a lecture. It provides a captivating backdrop with something that we are all familiar with while constantly revealing the true mechanics of how the celebrity machine runs. Definitely worth the read!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than Warhol Economy November 16, 2010

By Skitten

Format:Hardcover

What I love about Currid's books is that while they are totally easy to read and compelling, they still make you feel like you are legitimately learning something and not just wasting your time with fluff. Starstruck strikes this tricky balance masterfully. While I'm not proud of my own fascination with celebrity, I feel better for having invested my time in trying to understand it better. This is an accessible yet intelligent study of a topic that consumes us as a society.