April 12, 2023
Celebrity and Its Discontents
Landon Jones
Author, Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers (forthcoming)
Scott McVay (Introducer) / Lanny Jones (Speaker)
Minutes of the 27th Meeting of the 81st Year
John Cotton, president, presided over the meeting. Julia Coale led the invocation.
Jane Silverman read the minutes of April 5, 2023. The following guests were introduced: José Marti by Rob Kuser; Archer Harvey by Tom Harvey; Lisa Pisano by John Kelsey; Hella McVay by Scott McVay; Ward Tomlinson by Dan Haughton.
Attendance was 115.
Our speaker was Old Guard member Landon Jones, formerly the editor of Money magazine and People magazine, and recipient of the Henry R. Luce Award for Lifetime Achievement from Time, Inc. Lanny is the author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West and Great Expectation: America and The Baby Boom Generation. His presentation to the Old Guard was based on his new book Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers.
Lanny began his presentation with these sobering words: “Celebrity worship has become a disorienting force in our culture. It hurts celebrities, their fans, and the nation.”
What accounts for this? Originally, people of great achievement became celebrated and grew famous. Heroes and celebrities were the same people.
Over time, fame spread faster due to new technologies, moving from the engraving of Alexander the Great’s image on a widely circulated coin, to the ability to reproduce images as photographs in newspapers, magazines, books, motion pictures, television, and the Internet. This led us in the direction of entertainers as the new celebrities.
But now the advent of social media makes it possible for anyone at all to become a celebrity just by generating a huge following on Twitter or TikTok. Even defining “celebrity” now is a quandary. Historian and Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin put it this way: “A celebrity is a person well known for his well-known-ness.”
This result has been damaging to modern-day celebrities. Lanny engaged with many at close range, from Malcolm X to Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana. He saw how almost everyone who acquires fame now is at risk. Many suffer from a very real medical diagnosis of acquired situational narcissism. Those with high public visibility such as politicians, professional athletes, and movie stars can develop narcissistic traits as a result of their fame—traits such as grandiosity, attention-seeking, and unrealistic view of self. The intense attention they receive is constantly reinforced by the media, their employees, their agents, and their followers.
The media get rich and “celebrity” itself becomes a performance. If the celebrities cooperate with the media, the more they feed the media’s needs, the bigger they become. They hold on to their fame and fortune, but at the cost of their individuality, their privacy, even their independence—and the more famous they become, the more vulnerable they become.
So, over the years, the escape route many stars have used is drugs. The list of celebrity suicides is long and heartbreaking. The life expectancy of celebrities is many years shorter than ours.
Celebrity worship also damages fans, especially the youngest and pre-adolescents. In 2006, organizers of National Children’s Day asked children under 10 years of age to reveal their Christmas wishes. The desire to be famous for being a celebrity was #1; #2 was good looks, #3 was to be rich. According to a study done by the Washington Post and Harvard, 31% of American teens thought they would become famous someday. Another study found that the worship of celebrities most affects female adolescents who acquire poor body image.
Followers of celebrity influencers can become psychologically attached and obsessed with them, feeling an intimate familiarity with people who don’t even know they exist. The consequences? Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, spending beyond one’s means. It’s not surprising that young people too often find themselves looking in a mirror and feeling alone together.
And the damage to our nation? Somewhere along the way we lost sight of the heroes who were our original celebrities, honored for their achievements. As Lanny noted, “We live in a world where Fauci and Zelensky are upstaged by the slap between Will Smith and Chris Rock heard ‘round the world.” A British psychologist says one third of Americans suffer from celebrity worship syndrome. The hunger for fame is not about we; it is about me. In other words, fame that rewards individuals has grown in influence, while attributes that promote community strength have declined.
Who keeps celebrity culture going? Our culture’s worship of it? Is the triad of celebrity, media, and marketing still driving it? Is there any cause to believe change is possible?
Lanny’s concluding words suggested that it will be challenging. He said, “Celebrity is ultimately at the core of an ecosystem that empowers social media, night life, entertainment, fashion, publishing, television, and much more. If we can negotiate this thicket carefully and gain the self-awareness to approach celebrity naturally and honestly, unmediated by intense media coverage, there is hope.”
Respectfully,
Patti Daley
Jane Silverman read the minutes of April 5, 2023. The following guests were introduced: José Marti by Rob Kuser; Archer Harvey by Tom Harvey; Lisa Pisano by John Kelsey; Hella McVay by Scott McVay; Ward Tomlinson by Dan Haughton.
Attendance was 115.
Our speaker was Old Guard member Landon Jones, formerly the editor of Money magazine and People magazine, and recipient of the Henry R. Luce Award for Lifetime Achievement from Time, Inc. Lanny is the author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West and Great Expectation: America and The Baby Boom Generation. His presentation to the Old Guard was based on his new book Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers.
Lanny began his presentation with these sobering words: “Celebrity worship has become a disorienting force in our culture. It hurts celebrities, their fans, and the nation.”
What accounts for this? Originally, people of great achievement became celebrated and grew famous. Heroes and celebrities were the same people.
Over time, fame spread faster due to new technologies, moving from the engraving of Alexander the Great’s image on a widely circulated coin, to the ability to reproduce images as photographs in newspapers, magazines, books, motion pictures, television, and the Internet. This led us in the direction of entertainers as the new celebrities.
But now the advent of social media makes it possible for anyone at all to become a celebrity just by generating a huge following on Twitter or TikTok. Even defining “celebrity” now is a quandary. Historian and Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin put it this way: “A celebrity is a person well known for his well-known-ness.”
This result has been damaging to modern-day celebrities. Lanny engaged with many at close range, from Malcolm X to Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana. He saw how almost everyone who acquires fame now is at risk. Many suffer from a very real medical diagnosis of acquired situational narcissism. Those with high public visibility such as politicians, professional athletes, and movie stars can develop narcissistic traits as a result of their fame—traits such as grandiosity, attention-seeking, and unrealistic view of self. The intense attention they receive is constantly reinforced by the media, their employees, their agents, and their followers.
The media get rich and “celebrity” itself becomes a performance. If the celebrities cooperate with the media, the more they feed the media’s needs, the bigger they become. They hold on to their fame and fortune, but at the cost of their individuality, their privacy, even their independence—and the more famous they become, the more vulnerable they become.
So, over the years, the escape route many stars have used is drugs. The list of celebrity suicides is long and heartbreaking. The life expectancy of celebrities is many years shorter than ours.
Celebrity worship also damages fans, especially the youngest and pre-adolescents. In 2006, organizers of National Children’s Day asked children under 10 years of age to reveal their Christmas wishes. The desire to be famous for being a celebrity was #1; #2 was good looks, #3 was to be rich. According to a study done by the Washington Post and Harvard, 31% of American teens thought they would become famous someday. Another study found that the worship of celebrities most affects female adolescents who acquire poor body image.
Followers of celebrity influencers can become psychologically attached and obsessed with them, feeling an intimate familiarity with people who don’t even know they exist. The consequences? Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, spending beyond one’s means. It’s not surprising that young people too often find themselves looking in a mirror and feeling alone together.
And the damage to our nation? Somewhere along the way we lost sight of the heroes who were our original celebrities, honored for their achievements. As Lanny noted, “We live in a world where Fauci and Zelensky are upstaged by the slap between Will Smith and Chris Rock heard ‘round the world.” A British psychologist says one third of Americans suffer from celebrity worship syndrome. The hunger for fame is not about we; it is about me. In other words, fame that rewards individuals has grown in influence, while attributes that promote community strength have declined.
Who keeps celebrity culture going? Our culture’s worship of it? Is the triad of celebrity, media, and marketing still driving it? Is there any cause to believe change is possible?
Lanny’s concluding words suggested that it will be challenging. He said, “Celebrity is ultimately at the core of an ecosystem that empowers social media, night life, entertainment, fashion, publishing, television, and much more. If we can negotiate this thicket carefully and gain the self-awareness to approach celebrity naturally and honestly, unmediated by intense media coverage, there is hope.”
Respectfully,
Patti Daley