Since the 1950s, many cultural commentators have noted that society’s heroes have been replaced by media celebrities. Jib Fowles (1992) believes celebrities fill a void in a contemporary urban society where people feel anonymous or overwhelmed with options.

Americans, shorn of the supports of family tradition, cultural heritage, community and church, turn to the appealing images of confident celebrities to build their personal identities. Indeed, by the 1920s, celebrities were also called “personalities.” In place of a real community, the media offer a mechanism for the creation and maintenance of a “Star Village: a mythic community composed of the different types of people whom the American public wants to observe” (Fowles 1992:67).

According to Fowles, this community usually comprises 100 people, or is about the size of the typical pre-twentieth century village in which most people used to live.

Hollywood and non-actor celebrities constitute various social types—the athletic star, the femme fatale, the ingénue, the antihero, the mother, the captain-of-industry the exotic lover. New types occasionally arise to fill new roles in the celebrity village. “The principle behind the creation of new types is that whatever is unresolved deep in the culture will eventually be projected upon the ranks of Star Village. New slots appear, displacing old ones, in response to something profoundly troubling to the spirit of the times” (ibid.: 71). Besides giving Americans a vicarious sense of belonging or a safe outlet for vicarious love and aggression, celebrities may also influence Americans to buy products or, for example, support the nation’s war efforts by purchasing government bonds. Political candidates seek the endorsement of established celebrities whose consistent popularity with the public can reflect positively on the candidate.

Celebrities typically hire public-relations firms to handle the pressures of the media, whom the celebrities also court to promote their latest film or achievement. Because over 1,000 journalists cover entertainment, and with many more covering other celebrity fields, journalists feel the pressure to capture the star in a newsworthy comment or exploit. The cycle of celebrity creation and demise has quickened as media competition over celebrities has grown, with network television sponsoring several scandal and celebrity shows, including Entertainment Tonight, Hard Copy and Access Hollywood.

The cable network “E!” is devoted to celebrity news, while magazines, like People, US and Vanity Fair, as well as talk shows, feed the public’s desire to consume information about their favorite stars. Without satisfactory opportunities to know people, Americans rely upon the media to supply important information about human frailties and strengths, as told through coverage of celebrities. The media’s urge to tear down the celebrity usually over drug, monetary or sexual misdeeds, even before he or she has achieved star status enacts what Fowles calls Americans’ “latent destructive urge” to find “gratification when an idol is rocked” (ibid.: 144). Nevertheless, the public also loves the “comeback story” where a celebrity re-invigorates a faltering career with new achievement. Not surprisingly Hollywood has made many films about the joys and perils of celebrity including The Rose (1979), A Hard Day’s Nïght (1964), A Star is Born (1937, 1954, 1976) and Woody Allen’s Celebrity (1999).