Love them or hate them, we seem to be obsessed by celebrities these days – and not just film stars and pop musicians but people who seem to be famous just for being famous (I’m looking at you Paris Hilton and Michaele Salahi), the offspring of failed Vice-Presidential candidates and boys from Jersey with improbable names and haircuts.  Even if celeb-watching is not your thing, it’s hard to escape – newspapers, television news, radio shows, not to mention countless websites devote tremendous space to chronicling the exploits of the famous.  What is it about celebrity, fandom, and fame that makes us unable to look away?  Switch off TMZ and read one of these books:

 
October 2010

 

Barbas, Samantha.  Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and the Cult of Celebrity.  PN1995.9 A8 B37 2001

Biressi, Anita.  Reality TV: Realism and Revelation.  PN1992.8 R43 B57 2005

Escoffery, David.  How Real is Reality TV?  PN1992.8 R43 H69 2006

Fitzgerald, Terence.  Celebrity Culture in the United States.  E169.12 C39 2008

Gray, Jonathan.  Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World.  HM646 F36 2007

Gross, Michael.  Starstruck: When a Fan gets Close to Fame.  HM646 G76 2005

Halpern, Jake.  Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truth Behind America’s Favorite Addiction.  HM646 H35 2007

Huff, Richard.  Reality Television.  PN1992.8 R43 H84 2006

Kusinitz, Marc.  Celebrity Drug Use.  HV5824 C42 K87 1988

Lerner, Barron.  When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine.  R703 L47 2006

Lois, George.  $ellebrity: My Angling and Tangling with Famous People.  NC999.4 L64 S45 2003

Marshall, P. David.  Celebrity and Power.  E169.04 M366 1997

McCracken, Grant.  Culture and Consumption.  HC79 C6 M384 2005

Morton, Paula.  Tabloid Valley: Supermarket News and American Culture.  PN4888 T3 M67 2009

Murray, Susan.  Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture.  PN1992.8 R43 R45 2004

Reaves, Wendy.  Celebrity Caricature in America.  NC1426 R3 1998

Schmid, David.  Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture.  HV6529 S32 2005

Theroux, Louis.  The Call of the Weird: Encounters with Survivalists, Porn Stars, Alien Killers and Ike Turner.  E169 Z83 T48 2007

Back to Hot Topics

Northern Virginia Community College
Alexandria Campus Library
Display organized by Matt Todd.
Webpage created by Anne Anderson.
Last updated Oct. 2010.