Customer Reviews

Toxic Fame: Celebrities Speak on Stardom

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A thick 500 page book full of quotes from countless celebrities about the frustrations and absurdities involved in being a public figure. Anyone who dreams of being famous, anyone who has been starry eyed upon discovering a star should read this book. It will make you a little more respectful of their privacy.

I might not have ever heard about this book, were it not for a severely well-informed comment on the pressures of fame via MetaFilter that led me here. And the last review was from 13 years ago? Wow.

I bought a used copy and found myself engrossed by all these accounts of problems that are both so human yet so comparatively rare at the same time -- it's striking that most people will never really understand why celebrities have it so tough being in the public eye, because the masses won't know what it's like to live that life. I'd recommend this book to people who suspect they're on the road to fame, whether they're Internet personalities (like myself) or consider themselves C-list ascending to B-list and above...

Toxic Fame is structured sensibly enough, although I would've liked some additional sources for some of these quotes. They seemed to be arranged thematically and alternating between celebs, and my understanding is that a lot of these were snipped out of the same, longer interview by Joey Berlin, whereas other quotes were taken from other interviews and media sources.

Overall, a sobering, punchy, compelling read. If you read it in a short timespan, you may feel pretty beat down as you head into the final few chapters -- but that's not so unlike the experience of being a celebrity.