Classic celebrity discourse centers on the gap between image and the real person

Evidence

According to film theorist Richard Dyer, Hollywood celebrity turns on questions of reality versus image. “The whole media construction of stars encourages us to think of ‘really,’” Dyer says. As P. David Marshall puts it, the audience for celebrity “obsessively and incessantly asks, ‘what is Marilyn Monroe “really” like? Is Paul Newman “really” the way he appears in his films?’” Television celebrities are expected to be slightly less aloof than their film counterparts, but the business of ‘really’ remains an issue. — Theresa M. Senft, Camgirls, 196

Categorization

• XREF: Supplies the baseline ‘really’ question that the book’s later contrast with micro-celebrity will hinge on. — connects to: A celebrity persona can vault past public shame to critical acclaim — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 364; Manufactured celebrity images create audience demand to pierce to the real person — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 130; Bodily proximity forces a sincerity that media stardom structurally cannot achieve. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 301 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Classical stardom depended on separating manufactured image from private person #exemplifies (0.90) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 130
• Manufactured celebrity images create audience demand to pierce to the real person #expands (0.85) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 130
• Bodily proximity forces a sincerity that media stardom structurally cannot achieve. #complicates (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 301
• A celebrity persona can vault past public shame to critical acclaim #qualifies (0.72) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 364