Andy Warhol once said that everyone will have 15 minutes of fame. But why stop at 15 minutes? Being a celebrity opens doors that are closed to even the top members of society. Numerous celebrities have become budding business moguls and established themselves as very successful entrepreneurs. Their names have become brands worth millions of dollars. And celebrity status offers something that money really can't buy. It gives you a position and importance in society that can perhaps be rivaled only by top political leaders. More people will listen to what a celebrity has to say on a subject he or she may know nothing about than to wisdom from a senator who has served his state all his professional life. Celebrities are the new royalty. So why wouldn't you want to be one? This book provides a step-by-step description on how you can build a career in the limelight-from the very basics to the hidden secrets of the trade. It won't change your life overnight, but it will give you all the tools you need to succeed.
Two journalists describe their whirlwind efforts to become famous in two weeks by getting their names and faces in magazines, newspapers, and on television.
Inspired by Caribbean and African culture and mythology, Radiance Lost is a story of adventure, self-discovery, family, and friendship. When Zara is abducted by mysterious shadow spirits from her home in the jungle, her older brother, Nwanne, is forced to leave the only home he’s known to save her. With the guidance of an akụkọ named Chwal, the companionship of a creature named Bakari, the knowledge of a seer named Tai, and the help from other friends and acquaintances he meets along the way, Nwanne journeys through Juuga and discovers a magical ability within himself that he must master as he prepares for the inevitable dangers that lie ahead. Throughout his quest to find his sister, Nwanne also discovers the true meaning of deceit and trust, the value and negotiations of life itself, and the heaviness of bonds with family and loved ones. Radiance Lost is a fascinating adventure that will both captivate and resonate with modern fantasy fans.
Vanity Fair's veteran special correspondent pulls back the curtain on the world of celebrity and those who live and die there Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth always makes news. From Hollywood to murder trials to the corridors of politics, this National Magazine Award winner covers lives led in public, on camera, in the headlines. Here she takes us close-up into the world of fame--bridging entertainment, politics, and news--and the lives of those who understand the chemistry, the very DNA, of fame and how to create it, manipulate it, sustain it. Moving from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to Michael Jackson, the ultimate child/monster of show business, Orth describes our evolution from a society where talent attracted attention to a place where the star-making machinery of the "celebrity-industrial complex" shapes, reshapes, and sells its gods (and monsters) to the public. From divas letting their hair down (Tina Turner) to Little Gods (Woody Allen and Princess Diana's almost father-in-law Mohammed Fayed), political theater (Arnold's Hollywood hubris, Arianna Huffington's guru-guided gubernatorial quest), news-gone-soap-opera (I Love Laci), and even the Queen Mother of reinvention (Madonna as dominatrix/children's-book author), Orth delivers a portrait of an era. The Importance of Being Famous shows us the real world of the big room where the rules that govern mere mortals don't matter--and anonymity is a crime.
I build levers to move objects that appear to be immovable.Alexei Drovosek represents the next evolution of human: no heart, immunity to cancer, and the uncanny ability to survive in conditions that would kill normal men. As an orphan growing up in post-Soviet Russia, Alexei was taken in by the state and trained as its most vicious and effective killer. But eventually the Russian Federal Security Service's best-trained assassin did the most dangerous thing of all: he turned on his handlers, went rogue, and disappeared.In the bleak, high-tech near future, Alexei has resurfaced in a secret compound on the outskirts of Los Angeles, a city where autonomous-drive vehicles race along the highways and independent city-states operate with materialistic impunity. In the center of it all is the soaring headquarters of Pearl Knight Industries, an international mega-corporation that keeps war machines and cultural capitalism running in every country and on every continent on the planet. As a principal proponent of the 31st Amendment to the United States constitution, which legalized the transfer of suffrage from citizens to corporations, Pearl Knight has power that is truly above the law.Alexei lives a clandestine existence where his closest companions are his personal AI, Emma, and a group of orphans he has spent years amassing and training. But Alexei isn't fostering these children as a favor to the state; he's raising them with the hope that they will destroy it. As he moves each child into play in the world's highest-stakes game of chess that spans decades and continents, Alexei fights to destroy the plutocratic control of those in power and restore what matters to him most: democracy and freedom.
An “evocative and entertaining” biography of the nineteenth century circus performer who became a global phenomenon (Neil Harris, author of Humbug). When P. T. Barnum met twenty-five-inch-tall Charles Stratton at a Bridgeport, Connecticut hotel in 1843, one of the most important partnerships in entertainment history was born. With Barnum’s promotional skills and the miniature Stratton’s comedic talents, they charmed a Who’s Who of the nineteenth century, from Queen Victoria to Charles Dickens to Abraham Lincoln. Adored worldwide as “General Tom Thumb,” Stratton played to sold-out shows for almost forty years. From his days as a precocious child star to his tragic early death, Becoming Tom Thumb tells the full story of this iconic figure for the first time. It details his triumphs on the New York stage, his epic celebrity wedding, and his around-the-world tour, drawing on newly available primary sources and interviews. From the mansions of Paris to the deserts of Australia, Stratton’s unique brand of Yankee comedy not only earned him the accolades of millions of fans, it helped move little people out of the side show and into the limelight.
The Celebrity CEO is the complete guide to creating a strong personal brand. By developing your personal brand, you will set your business apart from your competitors and become known as the expert in your industry. The Celebrity CEO is the complete guide to creating a strong personal brand. By developing your personal brand, you will set your business apart from your competitors and become known as the expert in your industry. Written for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to make a massive impact and build a loyal fan base, The Celebrity CEO is the source for celebrity status in business. Learn from the founder of Smart Hustle Media, Ramon Ray, the mind-set of a celebrity CEO and the tools to cultivate your tribe.
Why do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive? In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the "divine" Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era's most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel. Whether you love celebrity culture or hate it, The Drama of Celebrity will change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.
"Wholly riveting." --New York Times Book Review "Justine Bateman was famous before selfies replaced autographs, and bags of fan mail gave way to Twitter shitstorms. And here's the good news: she took notes along the way. Justine steps through the looking glass of her own celebrity, shatters it, and pieces together, beyond the shards and splinters, a reflection of her true self. The transformation is breathtaking. Revelatory and raucous, fascinating and frightening, Fame is a hell of a ride." --Michael J. Fox, actor, author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future "In a new book, Fame: The Hijacking of Reality, the two-time Emmy nominee takes a raw look at the culture of celebrity, reflecting on her stardom at its dizzying peak--and the 'disconcerting' feeling as it began to fade." --People Magazine A Book Soup (Los Angeles, CA) best seller, October 15–21, 2018 "As the title Fame: The Hijacking of Reality more than implies, this is a book about the complicated aspects of all things fame." --Vanity Fair "Bateman digs into the out-of-control nature of being famous, its psychological aftermath and why we all can't get enough of it." --New York Post "The Family Ties alum has written the rawest, bleakest book on fame you're ever likely to read. Bateman's close-up of the celeb experience features vivid encounters with misogyny, painful meditations on aging in Hollywood, and no shortage of theses on social media's wrath." --Entertainment Weekly "Bateman addresses the reader directly, pouring out her thoughts in a rapid-fire, conversational style. (Hunter S. Thompson is saluted in the acknowledgments.)...But her jittery delivery suits the material--the manic sugar high of celebrity and its inevitable crash. Bateman takes the reader through her entire fame cycle, from TV megastar, whose first movie role was alongside Julia Roberts, to her quieter life today as a filmmaker. She is as relentless with herself as she is with others." --Washington Post "While Bateman's new book Fame: The Hijacking of Reality (out now) touches on the former teen starlet's experience in the public eye, it's not a memoir. Far from it, in fact--it's instead an intense meditation on the nature of fame, and a glimpse into the repercussions it has on both the individual experiencing it and the society that keeps the concept alive." --Entertainment Weekly "Bateman takes an unsentimental look at the nature of celebrity worship in her first book, Fame: The Hijacking of Reality." --LA Weekly Entertainment shows, magazines, websites, and other channels continuously report the latest sightings, heartbreaks, and triumphs of the famous to a seemingly insatiable public. Millions of people go to enormous lengths to achieve Fame. Fame is woven into our lives in ways that may have been unimaginable in years past. And yet, is Fame even real? Contrary to tangible realities, Fame is one of those "realities" that we, as a society, have made. Why is that and what is it about Fame that drives us to spend so much time, money, and focus to create the framework that maintains its health? Mining decades of experience, writer, director, producer, and actress Justine Bateman writes a visceral, intimate look at the experience of Fame. Combining the internal reality-shift of the famous, theories on the public's behavior at each stage of a famous person's career, and the experiences of other famous performers, Bateman takes the reader inside and outside the emotions of Fame. The book includes twenty-four color photographs to highlight her analysis.
Celebrity culture surrounds us. We are inundated with information about actors and actresses, athletes, musicians, and others who have become famous or infamous. Although we never will likely meet or get to know them, our interest in them seems boundless. We are literally obsessed with being entertained as well as with the people who entertain us. Who our celebrities are has also shifted; in the past, celebrity status was bestowed on men and women of great accomplishment, those who had given the world something to be proud of and to celebrate. Conversely, today’s celebrities are generally people involved in entertainment—from TV newscasters to people who appear on reality television programs, as well as some who are simply famous for being famous. What remains an enigma is why we, as a society, are so infatuated with being entertained, as well as with those who entertain us and appear in the media. This book makes sense of this spectacle by explaining the reasons for this obsession from a psychological, social, and historical perspective. It suggests that we have become addicted in much the same way that a person becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol. Finally, the author offers his observations on how to free our minds from this captivation. Anyone interested in understanding more about our need to live vicariously through the rich and famous will find answers in this book.
