Fame and celebrity : quotes articles books.........Talent Development Resources --..home page...site map

Mandy Moore on tabloids “I am so overwhelmed by the absurdity of rumors and how on earth they could possibly get started.  It's unbelievable!... I am so saddened that people stretch as far as they do in attempting to spread gossip that, at the end of the day, is just downright hurtful.” Mandy Moore - from her site mandymoore.com > photo for Until There's A Cure Foundation > related article: The Dark Side of Fame - by Douglas Eby

Winona Ryder on fame The one good thing to come out of everything that happened [referring to her arrest in 2001] is that I realized I wasn’t happy where I was. I wasn’t happy being so famous and being written about all the time. Hollywood people associate movies solely with fame and I didn’t enjoy working in that way anymore. I am so much happier now. Winona Ryder [Another Magazine March 2006 anothermag.com] > photo: with Joseph Fiennes in "The Darwin Awards" (2006)

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Shun fame So, what is it that you think you want? The received wisdom goes that you want Fame, that we all want it now, the same way our parents wanted a good melon. But it only means one thing, it has only ever meant one thing: more people knowing you than you know people.

Everything else is an accessory. Just don't bother with this thing, more people knowing you than you know people. Shun it. Put a black cross on your door. It's no fun. It's just for people who have lost something. Amputees. > from blog entry A Short Catalogue Of Things You Think You Want by Zadie Smith Zadie Smith is author of the novel On Beauty - the title comes from Elaine Scarry’s book, On Beauty And Being Just. “I wanted to write a non-academic version of that,” Smith says of the examination of beauty and it’s importance in the world. [metronews.ca Oct 31 2005]

performers and fame Many gifted performers crave public recognition because it fuels their creative process. A major preoccupation of gifted performers is the struggle to find their way into the company of their peers so that their talents can flourish. Becoming famous and respected almost certainly brings opportunities to work with other gifted individuals. Other gifted performers seek a wider public arena because they associate larger recognition with feeling more fulfilled.

This drive is often misunderstood by this type of client and can be subverted by self-defeating psychological beliefs. When gifted performers ascend to fame and on-the-street recognizability, they face increased levels of public exposure. They are often overwhelmed by public expectations, loss of privacy, and the fear of public humiliation if their imperfections are disclosed to the press. > from article Counseling Issues with Recognized and Unrecognized Gifted Adults - by Mary Rocamora > photo: Charlize Theron

“This whole place [Moonview] was designed because when I was an agent, I saw people implode from high media exposure. Let's say somebody takes a tumble. That tumble ignites a huge damage cycle, whether it's their concert schedule, or TV series, or their movie shooting... They want privacy and a comprehensive team.. to get them fortified and back on track.” Laurie Perlman - founder of Moonview Sanctuary [with partner Gerald Levin]

Matt Gallant, an actor and host of the Animal Planet channel's "The Planet's Funniest Animals" attended Moonview as a test patient.. "When you're living in a town where people feed you bull constantly, you want to hear the truth. You hear the truth here, and it's an incredible motivation.” [LA Times Oct 14, 2005 - photo by Damon Winter / LAT]  > related topics :   counseling....coaching

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But I’ve always thought of myself as being a star, in the sense that my life had a purpose. And in my eyes, I’ve succeeded more than a lot of people around me. Not so much in a monetary sense, but in the fact that I’ve had a lot of stuff going on. So I’ve never really compared my success as being based on my career. I have friends who are more famous. And some of them are single and miserable. They have so much money, and can't fix themselves. ... I’ve never wanted anybody else’s life but my own. Debi Mazar - Venice, June 2005 / photo - as publicist Shauna on HBO series "Entourage" > related page:. .achievement

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Michelle Wie doesn't want to be known in the future as someone who won the most LPGA tournaments in history. ... "I want to be known as doing stuff that no one ever thought of... I want to be known as people that changed the world and people that change how people think." [The Honolulu Advertiser, February 10, 2005] (photo : Ronnie Bianco/Reuters)

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Q : In one year alone (1978) you had a top rated series (Wonder Woman), released your debut album (Portrait) and also had a personality poster that sold an excess of 5 million copies making it "The Best Selling Poster of 1978".  What was your reaction to the poster's instant popularity?  Lynda Carter : Well I'll tell you a funny story. I was voted "The Most Beautiful Woman In The World" in whatever year it was and the day it was announced we received a phone call.  I had been sitting watching tv or something and eating chocolate chip cookies. My secretary came in and said, "Hey, guess what?" and I said "Oh really? Isn't that cool !"  I then preceded to look in the mirror because my secretary said, "You have to look at yourself right now". I had chocolate on my teeth, on my face... It was a sight to see! I think there was a short time where I believed the hype. Not the "beautiful" things but that I believed I was really important, and that didn't last very long because it didn't feel good.

You become a caricature of yourself and there's nothing real below that and what it does is that it just makes you scared because you know that's not who you really are. There's that true self inside that longs to connect to people and all those accolades tend to isolate you rather then to connect you.  So most of my life I've worked on shedding those images and doing things with my life that actually help people and that's not to take away from Wonder Woman or any of the artistic things I've done because it brings pleasure and all of that but I guess my message is that people are not so different from me.  from Lynda Carter- A Wonder of a Woman - interview by Shawn Winstian, Northwest Herald Aug 2003 - posted on lyndacarter-online.hostrocket.com also see quotes by Lynda Carter about Wonder Woman in article  Warrior Women On Screen - by Douglas Eby

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.. .. In a secularized society our need for ritualized idol worship can be displaced onto stars, speculates psychologist James Houran... Nonreligious people tend to be more interested in celebrity culture, he's found, and Houran speculates that for them, celebrity fills some of the same roles the church fills for believers, like the desire to admire the powerful and and the drive to fit into a community of people with shared values. Leo Braudy, author of The Frenzy of Renown.. suggests that celebrities are more like Christian calendar saints than like spiritual authorities.... Much like spiritual guidance, celebrity-watching can be inspiring, or at least help us muster the will to tackle our own problems.

.. .. "Celebrities motivate us to make it," says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University.. from article Seeing by Starlight - by Carlin Flora,  Psychology Today, Aug 2004 image from People magazine [subscription] painting of Saint Teresa from spirituality: page 3 ....Leo Braudy. The Frenzy of Renown : Fame & Its History

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I won't say you ever become comfortable with it [fame]. Because I'm such a shy person, having to live it out loud in front of everyone has made me a stronger woman, so much stronger, that it's been a gift to me in a way. Kim Basinger  ... [extratv.com June 14 2004] ..> related page:. ..introversion / shyness

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I was a freshman at UC Santa Cruz, really poor and restless to see the world. I used to sit in my dorm room, thinking, I just know I'm missing out on something. But, of course, I had no money.  And so this friend hooked me up with an agency, and it happened very quickly. I moved to Paris, got a cover of French Elle, and stayed for two and a half years. // I still can't believe that I walk down the runway once a year in high-heels and lingerie for Victoria's Secret. And that this is worthy of being broadcast on the Sony JumboTron in Times Square. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos  ....[imdb.com bio]  / photo by Steve Granitz - © WireImage.com

 

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Being a star doesn't last. That's not what life should be about. It's a complete illusion that really has nothing to do with you. For me, finding out about life is the most important thing. /// I admire actors and artists who devote just as much time to their life as they do to their work.  Jake Gyllenhaal ........[imdb.com bio] photo: Jake Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst

 

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.. .. ....The Importance of Being Famous : Behind the  Scenes of the Celebrity-Industial Complex  by Maureen Orth Vanity Fair columnist Orth calls the world of celebrity a war zone of million-dollar monsters and million-dollar spin.

She proves her thesis through a series of lacerating essays and interviews exposing personalities who'll "sacrifice everything including, sometimes, their lives, to be famous."... The author is witty, probing and painfully candid in her sympathetic piece about the violence Tina Turner suffered under Ike Turner's brutal control, but argues that Turner endured the beatings so long because of her own desire to be successful.  Orth also uses icons Judy Garland, Madonna and Michael Jackson as examples of stars who portray themselves as victims to hold the limelight....  Orth dissects such diverse personalities as Margaret Thatcher, Woody Allen, Karl Lagerfeld and, poignantly, Dame Margot Fonteyn, who sadly reflects, "I have lived my life in what I call the empty hotel room."  Orth combines merciless clarity with compassion in analyzing her power-hungry and tragic subjects. [Publishers Weekly]

 

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"I remember asking my therapist whether it was time to die, because -- I thought -- no photos equals death." That's Alanis Morissette writing in Nylon magazine about the shock of not being constantly "paparazzied," after the first flush of her fame wore off.    Liz Smith column, January 16, 2003

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I don't get frustrated if people don't know who I am. I actually get a kick out of it because it means I'm doing my job properly. I'm becoming somebody else; I'm creating somebody else's reality. It's not about me. ...  I'm glad that I can still walk down the street because I can't imagine having that taken away from me. I really feel for actors who are so famous that they literally cannot walk down the street. That would be a sad way to live. Your career would be everything to you. I love acting, you know, but life is bigger.    Toni Collette ****[USA Today 05/17/2002]

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****[You have been pretty famous in Europe for a long time.] Since I was very very young. ... But I learned how to deal with it and how to recognize who was real and what was real. ... It made me lonely and wary. I didn't trust people. It made me very upset and kind of paranoid for a while, then I became detached and it killed a lot of my ambition.  I thought that all the admiration and attention didn't make any sense -- it felt like I didn't do enough to deserve it. People tell you how great you are and you end up believing it and once you get to that place, what is there to fight for?        Asia Argento ******[from interview by Adrien Brody, Interview, August 2002]

*related pages:**ego / narcissism***

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.. .. [What have you lost from being a public persona your whole life?] You know, if you had asked me that question a few years ago, I would have said, "I haven't lost anything. I'm fine."  But the older I get  -- and I've gotten emotionally older just in the past year -- I see that I gave a lot away because I thought that was appropriate.

I assumed it wasn't taking a toll on me because in return I got positive things, validation or affection or compliments or whatever.  Little by little I gave away a lot. And at my age now, I'm done giving it all away. Because it isn't directly proportionate to anything, except sometimes a sense of emptiness. [That's a big thing for you to come to.]    It's huge!  Brooke Shields   [from Both Sides of Brooke by Guinevere Turner, Advocate, April 25, 2000]

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Being a public figure can keep you tremendously shallow. There's a life of ease that's offered to you, where you never have to make plane reservations or know how much a quart of milk costs, and you can exist with a new friend every day and a different party every night.  Or it can turn you into just the opposite, which is somebody who is fiercely grounded and responsible because that feels real to you. I guess I fall into that category. Jodie Foster Premiere, March 2002 more quotes by Foster on the page: directing and in book: Great Women of Film

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The cult of individuals is always, in my view, unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts unevenly among her children. But there are plenty of the well-endowed, thank God, and I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unobtrusive lives.  It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them for boundless admiration, attributing super-human powers of mind and character to them. from Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein

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Once you are famous, you don't have to evolve as a person. It's not necessary or important
that you read or think or make corrections in your personality. Nobody cares! Just keep the
profits rolling in. There's no need to move yourself forward spiritually and emotionally.

But growth is the greatest gift we can give ourselves as human beings, to constantly evolve,
to be the best people we can be, to tune into our feelings and face ourselves in all our nakedness
and truly look at who we are.

    Suzanne Somers     - from her book "After the Fall"

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********************----Veronica Lake  [1919-1973]

As her popularity reached its zenith, Lake's "peek-a-boo" hairstyle proved so popular
among her American devotees that the government filed an official request with Paramount
to have the actress change her look--they feared, probably justifiably, that a lock of hair
obscuring one eye would cause female workers in wartime factories to have more industrial
accidents. Lake complied, and once deprived of her signature languorous 'do, she lost significant
momentum at the box office.    [from bio on site: mrshowbiz.go.com]
 

*related page :*Role Models
 

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"Let's go worship someone who has the guts to be a celebrity."

Bart Simpson
 

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"It had a massive effect on my life. I don't know how you manage to not feel like a freak from all this sudden attention. I just went from a loudmouth teenager getting in trouble, trying to get attention, to suddenly having it all the time.  "So I tried to be as invisible as possible. I went to my dad and said, I don't want to do this, it's not fun anymore... Being a good actor doesn't correlate to being mature. Suddenly, because I was in a movie, I was meant to know better."     Christian Bale -   about acting in "Empire of the Sun" at age 12  [LA Times, April 13, 2000]

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"I surround myself with friends of mine who help me make fun of the facts,
so that I don't take any of this that seriously: being famous -- as if I'm
somehow different than everyone else because I act in movies"

        Bruce Willis  [Mr. Showbiz interview, 6/30/98]

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I can't even say the word 'star' [about myself]. I'm an actor and that's what I'm identified with, and what I spend my time and energy with. You are what you think, and you are what you do. And mostly what I think and do is work, in terms of my acting. .....Helen Hunt..... [Planethollywood.com interview posted on madabouthelen.com] ~ ~ There's a Rilke poem: 'I want to unfold. / Let no place in me hold itself closed / for where I am closed, I am false.' I found I was sort of walking around clenched and folded and angry at having my privacy invaded every five seconds.  And I thought, shame on me, because I don't want to live a life of being tight and clenched" ..... Helen Hunt

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Fame just forces you to rise to your best occasion, to be more patient, to be more clear about what you are doing and why you are doing it.          Julia Roberts   photo [as Louise Brooks] from book:  Femme Fatale : Famous Beauties Then and Now

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*articles :
 

Addiction to Fame and Celebrity by Sam Vaknin, PhD
Being famous encompasses a few important functions: it endows the narcissist with power, provides him with a constant Source of Narcissistic Supply (admiration, adoration, approval, awe) and fulfils important Ego functions. The image that the narcissist projects is hurled back at him, reflected in the eyes (or in the imagined eyes) of those exposed to the celebrity or fame of the narcissist. This way he feels alive, his very existence is affirmed and it begets a feeling of clear boundaries (where the narcissist ends and the world begins).

Role Models*- prominent actors and others about being responded to that way, and their own choices of role models.

Acquiring Your Self-image - by Dr Jill Ammon-Wexler
If I asked you to describe yourself, what self-image would you paint? Another way to put it is this: Who do you believe you are? While almost everyone agrees that it's important to have a good self-image, very few people seem to know how to acquire one -- or even how they got the self-image they now have.

Being A Role Model by Douglas Eby
Role models can be examples of how to discover and realize your own unique talents, and inspiration to do more, to be more authentic. A number of prominent actors and other people admired as role models have commented about being responded to that way, and about their own choices.

Ego and Creativity by Douglas Eby

The narcissist, unmasked by Benedict Carey
Behind the confident face is a self-loathing that therapists are just learning to confront. They've got the most fabulous personal trainer in town, the best lawyer, the top BMW mechanic, and make sure the world knows it. .. In the warm bath of sunlight and celebrity, their behavior can be entertaining, even encouraged, and it's usually relatively harmless. Yet some of these seemingly overconfident people are actually in considerable psychological trouble, suffering what psychiatrists call narcissistic personality disorder. 

 

 
*books :
 

Leo Braudy.  The Frenzy of Renown : Fame & Its History
Spanning thousands of years and fields ranging from politics to literature and mass media, The Frenzy of Renown explores the unfolding relationship between the famous and their audiences, between fame and the representations that make it possible.

Bernie Brillstein.  Where Did I Go Right? : You're No One In Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead
"More than a collection of .. anecdotes, the book offers some profound insights -- not just on the entertainment business, but on human nature, the lure of power, and the balance between creativity and organizational ability: all told with candor, in Brillstein's unmistakable, and frequently hilarious voice." (Brillstein is founding partner of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment) [review from Beverly Hills 213]

Michael S. Sitrick, Allan J. Mayer Spin : How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage
"We live in a world in which, virtually overnight, almost any individual can become a public figure... otherwise smart, sophisticated people react to the sudden glare of the media spotlight by shooting themselves squarely in the foot. Rather than making a virtue of necessity and regarding the press's interest as an opportunity, they see it as a threat. The result is generally a media train wreck. Sadly, many of the worst wrecks could have been averted, if only the participants had known how to manage the process. But too many of them refused to recognize that they were involved in a process. They didn't see that the maelstrom swirling around them was, in fact, a particular, predictable kind of situation, one that passes through a series of readily recognized stages, is shaped by an array of clearly identifiable forces, and follows a number of easily understood rules. ... the press is neither an inscrutable force of nature nor a craven pack of hyenas, but rather a very human institution driven by an entirely comprehensible set of motivations and aversions."

Glenn D Wilson, Andrew Evans. Fame: The Psychology of Stardom

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*related pages:.social reactions / interactions........social reactions / interactions: teen/young adult........

............ego / narcissism........role models........leadership & power........

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