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The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industial Complex [Hardcover]

Maureen Orth (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: May 6 2004
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 Huttington'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. She shows us the real world of the big room where the rules that govern mere mortals don't matter-and anonymity is a crime.

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

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." Orth views the Laci Peterson saga as America's number one reality soap opera and examines the media's hysterical need to provide alternative scenarios about the case just to keep the story in the news. 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. The need for fame encompasses a "contact high," demonstrated by money manager Dana Giacchetto, who was convicted for defrauding his "less famous accountsâ€"the A-minus or B-plus listâ€"so as not to lose face with the A-plusers." Even more grisly is Orth's account of Andrew Cunahan, who shot Gianni Versace and then himself, hoping for worldwide attention and immortality. 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Orth's first book, Vulgar Favors (1999), offered a perceptive look at serial killer Andrew Cunanan and the society that nurtured him. Her follow-up provides an equally perceptive look at celebrities and the society that nurtures them. Collecting a number of her Vanity Fair essays (with new bridging material), the book takes us inside the worlds of such notables as singer Tina Turner, author Arianna Huffington, Sein Fein president Gerry Adam, and, again, murderer Cunanan. The book's variety reinforces the idea that celebrity has many meanings, and Orth's work--in-depth, broad ranging, free of sensationalism--reminds us that the celebrity profile doesn't have to be a fawning puff piece. One of the essays here reconnects nicely to today's headlines: a 1994 profile of Michael Jackson discussing the child-molestation charge that was pending against him then. Ultimately, though, this book doesn't need to rely on current events to make its mark. Orth's subject is the phenomenon of celebrity, an ever-newsworthy topic, and her graceful handling of it should ensure a wide readership. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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As the Laci Peterson case proves, you don't have to be famous anymore to be famous. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
20 reviews
3.8 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Our Culture Isn't July 20 2004
By the wizard of uz
Format:Hardcover
I loved the phrase coined by Orth, " The Celebrity-Industrial Complex. " Note that media news are now 24/7, talking heads proliferate on TV and the quickest way of getting your leg broken is to get between a camera and Gloria Allred.

We do know, don't we, that if every celebrity on the planet were to die tomorrow 'The Complex' would replace them with a new crop by next week? There's no way The Enquirer is going out of business.

For that matter, the author notes that the trend is catching and irreversible: " One need not look further than PAGE ONE of the distinguished New York Times to see how far celebrity coverage has come . . it has featured such previously unthinkable stories about the deaths of singers Aailayah and Celia Cruz, not to mention the mauling of Las Vegas liontamer Roy...and an analysis of the career of Britney Spears. "

I don'tunderstand the negative reviews, unless they were expecting a 'how to ' achieve fame book, or, as implied, they've read all Vanity Fair articles for the last ten years between memorizing The Summa Theologica and The Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Whatever. Now name a better critique on our pop-culture. For my money, " Bobos in Paradise " is excellent but it's not in the same ballpark.

BTW, have you notied that when Columbine, 9/11 or other major public tragedies occur that reporters, when commenting on the bravery of some of the victims or rescuers involved, inevitably mention something to the effect that these were ordinary people who acted with extraordinary valor due to extreme circumstances?

Why doesn't anyone hazard the opinion that these were extraordianry individuals who acted with characteristic valor and decency under extreme circumstances?

Gee, could it be that by "ordinary" we DO NOT mean that they weren't Mozart or Einstein. Could we mean that what we're really saying is that they were firefighters or schoolteachers instead of Pop-Celebs?

Almost non-persons. Oh, yes, I forgot, there's a word for them: Nobodies.

God, or somebody , help us!

Outstanding book. As funny as it is painful.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Is This A Joke? Jun 25 2004
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I had high hopes for this book, but It is nothing more than a tabloid junkie. It gives false details about Michael Jackson Case, articles taken from tabloids.

I advise you to buy this instead:
" Redemption: The Truth Behind the Michael Jackson Child Molestation Allegations "

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fame Defrocked Jun 9 2004
By Judith Iglehart
Format:Hardcover
A fun read. Maureen Orth opens the door to the surreal world of celebrity and invites us in. The world she describes places most celebrities and others enjoying their "15 minutes" in their own personal Wonderlands, places most often resembling cuckoo's nests. Thanks to Orth, those curious about famous lives can push aside the curtains of wealth and power and then withdraw--thankful that most of those profiled are not part of our lives. Orth's contention that so many of the famous became newsworthy due to the media's insatiable need to provide coverage 24/7 gives us permission to avoid the news occassionally in the interest of tuning down the fame volume.
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Most recent customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing rehash of Vanity Fair articles
I wanted to like this book but was very disappointed that all it included was a mish mash of Vanity Fair articles from 1990-2002 with follow up paragraphs that appear to be right... Read more
Published on Jun 8 2004 by Loves to Read
5.0 out of 5 stars The Swamp of Fame
I am a thrity year veteran of Washington, D.C. during which time I have seen or met many of the characters so aptly described by Maureen Orth as they flitted across the power stage... Read more
Published on Jun 8 2004
2.0 out of 5 stars I am the only person who did not like this book?
I was greatly disappointed by this book. I expected it to be a serious study of fame and what people do to get it. Read more
Published on Jun 7 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars PEOPLE AS PRODUCT
PEOPLE AS PRODUCT

The brilliantly witty and ascerbically perspicacious Mauren Orth shows us what victims we have become - fame junkies and celebrity pluckers, who fall for the... Read more

Published on Jun 3 2004 by David Rubinson
5.0 out of 5 stars The Importance of Being Famous
Orth is an excellent writer: witty, intuitive and discerning in her judgments. She writes some of the best leds in the business. "Did you see the wee fox?" ... Read more
Published on Jun 2 2004 by Geraldine Conrad
5.0 out of 5 stars A lesson here for entrepreneurs...
The real importance of this book is not to learn more about our national obsession with the rich and famous. Read more
Published on Jun 2 2004 by Marion E. Gold
5.0 out of 5 stars The Importance of Being Truthful
It takes the great writer Maureen Orth to put it in our face!
From Putin to Madonna she got it! We are in danger of becoming a senile nation. Read more
Published on Jun 2 2004 by "trrestate"
1.0 out of 5 stars A Big Disappointment
What I expected was an inside look at the making and maintenance of fame. What I got was a bunch of rehashed, ten-year-old essays with brief "updates". Read more
Published on Jun 1 2004
2.0 out of 5 stars Don't Be Fooled -- This a Collection of Vanity Fair Articles
She's a great writer, but if you read Vanity Fair, YOU HAVE READ THIS ALL BEFORE! The publisher should be ASHAMED of how they marketed this book, suggesting it is a comprehensive... Read more
Published on May 31 2004 by Madrasi
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart author, smart book


The author is as fascinating as the book! Ms. Orth gave a talk at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, DC, where I had the pleasure of hearing her. Read more

Published on May 23 2004
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