The importance of being famous : behind the scenes of the celebrity-industrial complex / Maureen Orth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Orth, Maureen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Celebrities--United States.

Celebrities.

United States.

Popular culture--United States.

Popular culture.

Mass media and culture--United States.

Mass media and culture.

Fame.

United States--Social life and customs--1971-.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

372 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : H. Holt, 2004.

Summary:

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 presents a gallery of influential, often glamorous, but always ambitious characters (stars and statemen, monsters and murderers), linking tales of their sometimes outrageous behavior with her own, from-the-trenches "Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex." These smart and funny observations -- drawn from Orth's memories, including Elvis's funeral and the Triumph of Arnold in the California Recall Election -- detail the increasing difficulty of reporting in an arena of Superstars and Big Media, where pasts are perpetually reinvented.

In a chapter entitled "I Love Laci," Orth goes behind the scenes of the Laci Peterson murder investigation to show the elaborate, circuslike atmosphere that now surrounds what Orth describes as "reality soap operas." In "Report from the Planet Michael" and "No Laughing Matter" she takes us into scandals surrounding Michael Jackson and Woody Allen, pointing out what havoc gets wreaked when "little gods" are granted unlimited glories. In "The Diva Lets Her Hair Down," we meet an icy Madonna and those who sacrifice all to keep her cool. In addition, we see the deft repackaging of I.R.A. terrorist leader Gerry Adams for American prime time. Along the way are socialites on the rise, lessons learned from Elizabeth Taylor ("the Madame Curie of Fame Extension"), and indepth investigations of Arianna Huffington and superstar songwriter Denise Rich. We follow Orth in a canoe through the Philippine jungle to infiltrate the closed set of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, touch down in Argentina for a visit with Carlos Menem -- a prime minister straight out of Casablanca -- and travel on a private jet bearing Shaquille O'Neal. (His belt buckle boasting "This World Is Mine" says everything about how constant admiration makes the famous feel.) In The Importance of Being Famous, Orth delivers a revealing, sophisticated look at the big room of modern celebrity and the star-making machinery of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex.

Contents:

Introduction: I Love Laci: Welcome to America's Number One Reality Soap Opera 1

Part I The DNA of Fame: Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex I 15

Proud Tina: Tina Turner "Nothin' evah is nice and easy" 29

No Way to Treat a Lady: Margaret Thatcher "I have never been defeated by the people" 45

Part II Reinventions, Second Acts, Grand Finales: Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex II 59

The Diva Lets Her Hair Down: Madonna "I will not feel this pain in my heart" 69

The Emperor's New Clothes: Karl Lagerfeld "I was spoiled. I hated the idea of being a child. They all had slave parts. I had no need for company" 83

Desperately Striving Susan: Susan Gutfreund "It's a ball-buster, n'est-ce pas?" 97

Cult Favorite: Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington "I can be cruel. Of course, I am trying to improve myself every day" 107

Part III Political Theater: Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex III 123

The Rich Is Different: Denise Rich and Pardongate "All I thought at the time was, okay, he's the father of my children" 131

Revolutionary War: Gerry Adams "I can only describe this as a killing zone" 151

The Secret Agent: Vladimir Putin "Of course, power should be, in a way, mysterious and magic" 171

Quien Es Mas Macho? Carlos Menem "It's really the country that needs the ambulance" 193

Part IV Little Gods: Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex IV 213

No Laughing Matter: Woody Allen and Mia Farrow "Little gods don't have to do what everybody else does" 221

Show Me the Money: Dana Giacchetto "What Dana turned into was a nightclub-crawling, Prada-suit-wearing boy" 237

King Harrod: Mohamed Fayed "They think I'm a wog" 255

Full-Dress Homicide: Andrew Cunanan "Thank you for remembering, Signor Versace" 277

Part V Fame and Infamy: Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex V 301

Report from the Planet Michael: Michael Jackson "He hasn't been cleared of anything!" 307

Part VI The Empty Hotel Room: Notes from the Celebrity-Industrial Complex VI 353

Last Dance: Dame Margot Fonteyn "I have spent an awful lot of time in what I call the empty hotel room" 357.

ISBN:

0805075453

OCLC:

53483743