Living in the Limelight

Book excerpt: For the typical celebrity, living in the limelight has never been particularly easy, and it seems to be getting harder every day. Although celebrity in the current century is similar to how it has been experienced in the past, the widespread availability of the Internet and its endless innovative potentialities have certainly brought about changes and new challenges. Today, it is not uncommon for this seemingly desirable cult of personality to, at times, take on an unexpected life of its own, sweeping unprepared celebrities along for the ride. To enable readers to grasp the cumulative complexity of contemporary celebrity culture, this book explores dynamics of the celebrity experience in recent centuries and up to the present day. In doing so, it explicitly analyses ever-changing phenomena of relevance to the celebrity experience, the importance and impact of fans and fandom(s), and the various pleasures and pitfalls that celebrities regularly encounter.