Celebrity and Being-in-the-world: The Phenomenology of Fame

INTRODUCTION

Between the lines of contemporary culture, the heightened allure of fame has taken

root, exemplified by the iconic status of modern-day celebrities and the ever-steady stream of

people seeking fame and its subsequent fortune. In fact, filmmaker John Waters (2004)

believes that being famous is everyone’s unspoken wish. “Most everybody secretly imagines

themselves in show business and every day on their way to work, they’re a little bit depressed

because they’re not…People are sad they’re not famous in America.”

Public interest in fame and celebrity has been documented by parasocial research (Horton

& Wohl, 1956; Giles, 2002a) and celebrity worship studies (McCutcheon, Lange, and

Houran, 2002; Maltby, Houran & McCutcheon, 2003). In an attempt to address this growing

trend, from high newsstand sales of celebrity-based magazines to TV’s I’m A Celebrity, Get

Me Out of Here! this study examines the reality of living in the spotlight by investigating the

experience of being famous. Where does fame, as a contemporary norm, find its historical

and geographic roots? And, to what extent, is fame culturally bound? It should be noted that

without the tabloid press, the general public would have few means by which to peer into the

lifestyles of the rich and famous. In the past several years, however, prying has become a

considerably easier proposition, with photographers’ telephoto lenses reaching into

celebrities’ private domains; the tabloid press take the inquiring public “up-close and

personal.” Carr (2003) calls this trend in coverage, “celebrity gossip,” and says these “tab-a-

zines” actually use famous people as “mannequins,” and treat them like “piñatas” (pp. B1,

B8). Such media attention on celebrities is apparently feeding a growing demand.

How does such intense scrutiny impact a celebrity’s ability to feel at home in the

world? What is it about the current social climate that has unleashed a tidal wave of celebrity

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fascination that is driving billion dollar industries? As stated in Giles (2000), “The defining

characteristic of celebrity is that it is essentially a media production, and its usage is largely

confined to the twentieth century” (p. 3).

Boorstin’s succinct (1961, p. 57) definition of celebrity illustrates its illogical

paradox: “The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knowness”. This raises a

question of psychological importance: Does a person’s celebrity takes on a life of its own,

separate and apart from the person’s authentic being? And if so, how does the famous person

reconcile these splintered selves?

In contemporary society, famous people often find themselves in a feeding frenzy of

fans and public adulation. Of the role that fame is playing in contemporary culture, perhaps

“American Idol” host Simon Cowell, said it best: “There is a fame epidemic!”

Though such attention may focus on the star, Braudy (1997) insists that celebrity is

more a reflection of the culture than the individual. Several decades ago Boorstin (1961)

pointed to the development of a media culture in America, which created the thirst for the

famous face and the public relations machine necessary to get that product, the discovered

“star,” to its market:

Fame is nothing new to modern society. In fact, people have been glorified

throughout the ages: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Shakespeare,

Dante, and Socrates, to name a few. With fame, after all, comes power. Braudy (1997, p. 3)

states that, “the history of fame is the history of the changing ways by which individuals have

sought to bring themselves to the attention of others and, not incidentally, have thereby

gained power over them”. But what actually lies in wait for those among us who become

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famous? Is the achievement of fame and celebrity the true pinnacle of human existence as

some cultural media messages would have us believe?

One means by which science can hope to understand the experience of being famous

is through qualitative analysis from those who are living or have lived the actual experience.

The Transcendental Phenomenological model was used in this study in order to discern the

themes and essences of the particular experience being studied. Phenomenology is the study

of experience using, as its data, verbatim transcripts obtained from research participants as it

informs the study of their particular being. The ontological science of being is discernable

through the accumulation of the data of human experience, which May, Angel & Ellenberger

(1994, p. 117) describe as the roots of qualitative methodology: “Existentialism is the

philosophical trend of thought which takes as its focus of interest the consideration of man’s

most immediate experience, his own existence”.

This study of the experience of fame used phenomenology in order to get inside the

celebrity’s encounter with self and world, as he or she describes it. The research question

examined the celebrity experience as it informs the phenomenology of fame, asking research

participants: “What is the experience of being famous?”

METHOD

The participants in this study were recruited on the basis of two broad criteria: being

publicly recognizable and media coverage. Publicly recognizable participants included and

were limited to people who are readily identifiable as a celebrity when in the “public eye.” As

pointed out by Mitchell & Cronson (1987), celebrity families “live under a distinct set of

rules dictated by their social status and high public visibility” (p. 236). Such visibility is

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translated into face recognition and name recall of the celebrity, albeit with instances of

“what is that guy’s name?” and “I know she’s famous, but I can’t think of who she is,” that

sometimes accompanies the celebrity encounter. Another criterion that underwrites the first is

that the research participant has been written about in the public press, backing up the notion

that this particular person has been deemed worthy of celebrity attention.

One aspect of celebrity experience that must be addressed is the dynamic that is

created by intense public visibility, and losing an unrecoverable sense of anonymity in the

world. What would it be like if every person on the street, in the stores, or at the movies

immediately recognized the person, and watched relentlessly as he or she went about the stuff

of daily life? What does such attention on the self do to intra and interpersonal relating?

I included celebrities from several societal categories specifically chosen to

investigate the experience of being famous across the spectrum of American culture:

government, law, business, publishing, sports, music, film, television news and entertainment

(including morning, daytime, primetime, and late night television personalities). The pool of

celebrity participants includes both national and local stars. Interviewees fall under the

definition of “famous,” and “celebrity,” and comprise those who are “celebrated” by society.

Through their stories, the experience of fame and its emotional and affective impact on being-

in-the-world is ascertainable.

In-person, sit-down interviews lasting from 1 to 1½ hours in length were conducted

on dates and at locations agreed upon by the research participant and me. I traveled to New

York City to conduct several of the interviews. Two of the 15 interviews were conducted by

telephone due to geographic considerations. There were no age or gender requirements for

research participants in this study.

I wrote and mailed a letter of intent to each potential participant, explaining the nature of

my research, defining the terms of my question, and clarifying the intention of my study. A

participation-release agreement, including an agreement to participate clause, permission to

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tape record, description of confidentiality, the time commitment involved, the ability to

withdraw at any time, as well as granting permission for future publications, was discussed

with participants before it was signed. Names of celebrity participants have been changed for

the purpose of maintaining confidentiality for all interviewees involved in this research.

Additionally, any identifying information has been changed and the replacement text is in

brackets.

The list of five guiding questions for research participants illustrates the open-ended

nature of, and the importance of minimizing researcher interference in the collection of data.

Guiding Questions for Research Participants:

1. When considering celebrity and your being-in-the-world, what is the experience of being famous?

2. Have you lost or gained anything as a result of being famous? 3. What was your life like before you became famous, and then after you became

famous? 4. What is your first memory of being famous? 5. Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Since there is an acute awareness on the part of the celebrity to his or her persona, a

heightened state of self-scrutiny due to being well-known in society, it made many celebrities

whom I approached for this study reticent to participate. Calls made and faxes sent to several

of the celebrity’s agents and managers went unanswered. Sensitivity toward the possibility of

saying something negative about being famous that might tarnish his or her image stood in

the way of obtaining willing celebrity participants.

Securing people for this study was made possible because I was able to take

advantage of personal connections that I have with famous members of the media. Some of

these celebrities acknowledged that they agreed to be in my study only because they knew

me, and therefore, could establish trust. I also accessed celebrities through my husband’s

professional sports connections, and networked with other contacts to discern availability of

some targeted participants. For example, in an attempt to secure a former child star who could

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offer the before-and-after as well as childhood impressions of the experience of being

famous, I contacted a friend who once worked with the celebrity’s wife. After obtaining their

phone number, and speaking with his wife, the celebrity agreed to join my roster of research

participants. The problems of access to celebrities, and the issue of trust, are two reasons why

there is such a lack of research on the subject of celebrity experience.

The 15 research participants fall into the following categories:

1. Movie Star 2. Network Anchor 3. Elected Government Official 4. Famous CEO 5. Talk Show Host 6. Network News Star 7. Late Night TV Personality 8. National Hockey League All Star 9. Celebrity Lawyer 10. Bestselling Author 11. TV Sportscaster 12. Former Major League Baseball Announcer 13. Former Professional Basketball Player 14. Former R&B Superstar 15. Former Child Star Upon completion of the interviews, they were transcribed by a transcription service.

With transcripts in hand, I listened to the full interviews, taking note of content as well as

nuances revealed through pauses, manners of speech, and tone of the discourse.

The analysis was carried out following the stages outlined in the Transcendental

Phenomenological model (Moustakas, 1994). To begin with I highlighted textural themes and

pertinent horizons in the text, and took pains, through the process of phenomenological

reduction, to arrive at the essence of the experience of being famous. Through eidetic

variation, and allowing space for creatively being-with the data, such as drawing, sketching,

and making notations on paper, I heard the data’s story and felt ready to tell it.

I wrote out the six individual descriptions required by the Transcendental

Phenomenological model. Research participants were asked to read through their particular

descriptions for the purpose of validating the accuracy of the accounts. I organized, analyzed,

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and synthesized the data, by developing individual textural and structural descriptions,

writing composite textural descriptions and composite structural descriptions, and creating a

synthesis of textural and structural meanings and essences of the experience into a textural-

structural composite narrative.

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ANALYSIS

Celebrity and Being-in-the-world: The Experience of Being Famous

The experience of being famous is something for which no one is prepared. It is a

world described as: bizarre, surreal, scary, lonely, creepy, daunting, embarrassing, confusing,

and invasive. The celebrity life is also described as providing: flattery, warmth, ego

gratification, adoration, unlimited access, enormous wealth, and membership to an exclusive

club in which you are surrounded by other famous people. Many celebrities reported finding

themselves ill-equipped for the deluge of attention that comes with fame. What looks so

inviting from the outside is experienced from within as a struggle.

The following section lays out the textural themes (shared experience as revealed in

the text or interview content of research participants) and structural themes (those textural

revelations that illustrate relationship-to-world considerations of: temporality, spatiality,

causality, materiality, and bodyhood). A summary of the data is in the form of a composite

textural-structural description of the experience of being famous, as reported by celebrities

who took part in this study. The themes are presented in verbatim excerpts from research

participant transcripts. Names are changed.

Textural Presentation of the Data

Exploration of Textural Theme

The celebrity’s encounter with fame, in the context of relationship to “self,” includes

five textural themes: Depersonalization (Entitization); Loss of Privacy; Expectations; Ego

Gratification; and Symbolic Immortality. As a famous person encounters “other,” the five

textural themes described are: Wealth; Access; Temptation; Mistrust; and Familial Concerns.

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Additionally, a developmental design of a structurally thematic nature emerged from

the data showing that fame is experienced as a progression through four temporal phases:

Love/Hate; Addiction; Acceptance; and Adaptation.

Relationship to Self: Intrapersonal Experience

Theme 1. Depersonalization (Entitization).

In discerning the “what is” of the experience of being famous, Stanley, an author,

reported that a main theme for him was a sense of entitization. The term, coined by him,

describes the objectifying or depersonalizing notions of being made into an entity. Other

celebrities concurred, referring to themselves alternately as: an animal in a cage; a toy in a

shop window; a Barbie doll; a public façade; a clay figure; or, that guy on TV.

Stanley differentiates between himself, the human being, as one entity, and his

“persona,” or image, as another.

I think celebrity does that; I think that it entitizes you, if there is such a word. Now you’re not a person, you are an entity. As an entity, you can be anything…So, I mean, you feel sort of turned into a “thing” and not a person…you see your own face on…advertising, and they use your name, but it doesn’t feel like it is you. It feels like you have cloned yourself, and you have made this other person. It is this other person who is getting marketed, and that face belongs to that other person. It is your “other person” face, your marketing face. …The only way I think you can really handle it, is to say, “That’s not really me, as much as this working part of me, or the celebrity part of me.” Stanley’s being, therefore, houses both his true self and his image, living together in

some degree of perpetual tension. In the context of relationship to self, Stanley has had to

divide his self-awareness into twin selves. He handles all the acclaim by assigning a

phenomenal reality to his “entity,” while his true self stands back as an observer.

Theme 2. Loss of Privacy.

A major textural theme running through every research participant’s experience of

being famous was a loss of personal privacy. This was one of the most overwhelming effects

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of celebrity: privacy is invaded; my life is for public consumption; you are living in a fish

bowl; and, fear of tabloid paparazzi.

Patty is a television personality. Her high level of fame necessitates a loss of privacy

and a compensatory inability to move freely about the world. Patty always takes privacy into

account when planning her schedule, hoping to avoid the probing lens of the celebrity press:

Privacy, I’ve lost. The ability to go to a hotel and go to the swimming pool and not feel that people are looking at how I look in a bathing suit or if I have cellulite. Sort of a feeling that I can be alone, you know? Not always, but sometimes. When I go on vacation now, I don’t go to a hotel. I rent a house, usually, because people take pictures of me in a bathing suit and sell them to tabloids. You know, that is a pain in the butt to have to worry about that. There is nowhere in the United States that Patty is not recognized. “Sometimes I feel

like I live in a small town because everybody knows my name.” Patty says, “…it's just odd

for people to relate to me so closely, who are complete strangers,” because it creates “a

familiarity that I think sometimes breeds inappropriate closeness.”

Theme 3. Expectations.

Once fame hits, celebrities describe being bombarded by expectations from all

quarters: friends, family, work associates, and strangers. The celebrity is left feeling obliged

to fulfill others’ insatiable expectations, while feeling guilty when the expectations are

inevitably not.

In his relationship to other, Richard, an actor, has experienced a common theme

inherent in celebrity life. Fame becomes “baggage.” When he is with friends, Richard says

his celebrity lies on the table between them, “like a bloated cod, just sitting there.”

Some friends can handle it, and I’ve lost friends because of it…just by all this adoration that comes whenever you’re in public, they feel less. They feel inferior…You’re special and they aren’t. You’re extraordinary and they’re ordinary. All of a sudden, they aren’t calling you back and they aren’t around. And the next thing you know, they’d really rather not have anything to do with you. And you understand them. You have to.

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Theme 4. Ego Gratification.

The dangers of celebrity can be readily identified in the theme of ego gratification,

described by several participants as: leading to a self-serving existence; a level of adoration

that can be seen in others’ eyes; I’m boosting my own ego; and, I kind of get off on it.

Patty addresses the ego aspects of fame, saying it is “somewhat of a high. And, it is

obviously ego gratifying.” The emotional disadvantages to being the constant center of

attention are not lost on Patty either; she understands the slippery slope of an unchecked ego.

My life is different in that people kiss my ass, and that’s not always a good thing because then you start believing that your ass is worthy of being kissed. I think you have to constantly stay on guard for that. And I think it’s very hard. I think there are times when I exploit that, where I take advantage of people sucking up to me or the power that I wield. Living a celebrity life can be a difficult tight wire act, between succumbing to

narcissistic tendencies and maintaining a grounded and empathetic self. In ways she never

envisioned, fame has changed Patty’s life. Professionally, she knows she is a valuable

commodity, with immense power and clout. Personally, she tries to maintain a healthy

balance.

I am acutely aware that people may be looking at me; people at restaurants give me special treatment, I can get reservations, do you know what I mean? And it feels very undemocratic, because I am treated better than most other people, and I don’t think that’s fair.

Theme 5. Symbolic Immortality.

Many research participants spoke of the gift of fame as somehow securing

immortality. With all the public recognition and acclaim comes a sense that something

survives after the famous person dies. Cheating the existential paradox of its inherent power,

however, is only symbolic, since it is simply a symbolic representation which, in some

limited capacity, lives on.

In my line of work anyhow, you feel like you have the chance at a bit of immortality that you didn’t have before… there is a record of me now because of my celebrity,

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and because of the kind of society that we have now, when I’m dead, you’ll still be able to look me up on the Internet.…Even if I died tomorrow, there would be somebody besides my loved ones who would remember who I was and what I did.

Relationship to Other: Interpersonal Experience

Theme 1. Wealth.

A very welcome aspect of the experience of being famous is the wealth with which

fame comes. There seems to be a lifting of financial burdens, and an acquired confidence that

money is no longer a problem nor even a consideration. Wealth, as a byproduct of fame,

provides much more tangible evidence of celebrity’s staying power. And it takes money to

buy the privacy famous people need, as some celebrities reported choosing to rent houses

rather than stay at hotels, and securing their private homes with iron gates.

Richard, a Hollywood actor says, is his outlook now often involves trying to protect

his assets.

You understand that that’s part of the list of things you’re going to have to deal with that also comes with the money and getting to work with [academy award winning actors]…that that privilege, that great high, that goal reached, also includes this list of things: the guy that’s going to lean across you at the [hockey] game drunk with your, then, 8-year-old boy, and say, “I hate the fuckin’ [hockey team] into your kid’s face, because he wants you—and this is where you get smart—he wants you to shove him down or push him so that he can fall down the stairs and call his lawyer. Whatever it is, simply because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and you’re a target because you’re money.

Theme 2. Access.

Once a celebrity is recognized as such, a new world opens; what was once

inaccessible now becomes ordinary. Research participants shared that: a lot more doors have

opened as far as going places or meeting people; fame allows access to other famous people;

it’s like getting membership into an exclusive club; when you want those Super Bowl tickets,

you can make a phone call.

The access is unbelievable…If I want to open a store in another state or meet people of all walks of life, I don’t have much of a problem. I could pick up the phone or

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visit—be in that city and call a person and see them. You know, you’ve heard the term 100 times. Opening doors is very, very, very easy.

But while famous people try to keep other people out of their personal domain, “the

famous” are invited freely and openly into the heretofore restricted world of celebrity. It

becomes commonplace for famous people to get preferential treatment from almost everyone

in the world with whom they interact.

When I get stopped by the police, if I am going too fast… I roll the window down. I give them my license. They say, “Oh. Could you give me an autograph for my son?” I say, “Absolutely.” I sign the autograph. They just say, “Be careful,” and I go on my way.

Theme 3. Temptation.

Only a few participants mentioned the temptations that often accompany

membership into that “exclusive club,” but the ones who did, stressed the lure of the

many enticements that they face being-in-the-world of celebrity. Fame creates a

larger than life world for the larger than life celebrity, in which temptations litter the

landscape. A sports celebrity describes the off-court world:

I’ve seen too many guys outside of fame willing to sacrifice and do anything to be a part of it. I’ve seen too many girls disrespect themselves to be a part of it. I’ve seen too many celebrities completely abuse it, use it, and abuse anybody in their path. Opportunities materialize in the wake left by fame’s rolling tide.

I live in Hollywood and I’m a middle aged man…and Miss September keeps throwing herself at me. That wouldn’t happen if I wasn’t famous.

Theme 4. Mistrust.

As people traverse the drawbridge from being a member of the general public to

being recognized as celebrity elite, they experience a loss of trust in other people. This creates

a sense of isolation, even in the warm glow of fame, and the creation of an emotional and

sometimes physical shield from the outside world. In an everyday environment in which the

celebrity is wondering “do people like me because of who I am, or because of what I do?”

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With the development of this type of mindset as a new operating belief system, the conditions

are set for grave mistrust within the celebrity psyche.

That trust thing is important. I don’t think you trust anybody the same way when you become well-known, because you don’t trust being well-known. It is an intrinsically untrustworthy dance partner; it could leave you at any time…so it’s like a very mysterious thing. Sophia, a former R&B Star, described her feeling that she has been elevated to the

height of fame, used by an industry that capitalized on her talents, and taken advantage of by

people who wanted to share in her spotlight through nothing more than proximity, Sophia

warns of fame’s dangerous allure.

You have to be careful with the Greeks bearing gifts. You have to be careful with the ones who come just because they know you’re famous. I married two guys, two gigolos that were trying to marry [me and my singing group] and found out it was just me, and it didn’t last very long before an annulment. Both were annulled.

Perhaps Sophia’s deepest disappointment in “other,” as a consequence of being

famous, is with the music world. She describes herself as a young woman who idealistically

followed the dictates of others to the detriment of her own long-term financial security and

personal autonomy. Known around the world, even today, as a quintessential R&B diva,

Sophia finds herself struggling to survive.

Her resentment is palatable. “I never thought it would be like this. I always thought

that there would be an abundance.”

Theme 5. Familial Concerns.

Research participants voiced concern over the extent to which their fame has and will

continue to impact their families, primarily their children, with the demands that come with

being the child of a celebrity. Famous parents emphasized the undue pressure on their

children to meet the expectations of others, to the detriment of their own personal growth,

authenticity, and self-actualization.

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In what ways are family members affected by living a life in the shadow of fame?

Several research participants bemoaned what felt like a situation beyond their control. One

research participant turned wistful, gazing out a Manhattan picture window as he expressed

concern over the legacy of fame on his 15-year-old son.

I worry about that as an issue with my son, because I don’t want him to think of me, because I’m famous, as being any more special than he is. And I wonder sometimes if he’s going to confuse fame with worthiness or value as a person, that if he doesn’t grow up to be someone who has celebrity or fame, that he is somehow not recognized or not worthy of people’s respect or admiration—and his own kind of feelings of self-esteem… The family dynamic is complicated by fame, I think. The experience of being famous comes with trappings of wealth, unlimited access,

and ego gratification for contributing something lasting to the world. Learning to contend

with being “entitized,” a loss of privacy, being heaped with unrealistic expectations,

understanding the development of mistrust toward others, being aware of ego inflation, and

assessing fame’s affect on his or her family are the core themes that delineate the experience

of being famous. The celebrity encounters a world forever changed, and setting a new course

becomes critical to navigating the unforeseen existential realities of living a famous life.

Structural Presentation of the Data

Exploration of Structural Themes

As the essences and nuances of the little known experience of being famous come

into clearer focus, it is important to search for implications in the context of structural themes.

The noesis or the “how is” of the celebrity experience is examined as an existential process.

These structural themes offer scaffolding on which to hang the experience of fame, in order

to further explore notions of time, space, cause and effect, material considerations,

implications of bodyhood, as well as the experience of celebrity in relationship to self and in

relationship to other.

Theme 1. Temporality.

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A structural investigation into the developmental aspects of celebrity experience

revealed a progression through four phases, rather than as an overnight readjustment:

Love/Hate; Addiction; Acceptance; and Adaptation to celebrity.

Through this progression, the celebrity grapples with the inconsistencies of the

experience of being famous, and after accepting the inevitable consequences of fame, he or

she learns to adapt to the unique celebrity environment. This adaptation, a new way of being

for a new way of life, is undertaken for the sake of emotional and intellectual survival. “I

think that through time…you are able to take fame and put it in its proper place...” “It’s just

part and parcel of the position itself.” “As you mature, you begin to feel like, well, it’s not

that important.”

Temporally speaking, fame is also variously described as: creeping up; fleeting; more

time-consuming to move around than it was in the days of anonymity; providing a chance at

immortality; invading family time; and, like death, happens only once.

Theme 2. Spatiality.

The celebrity’s relationship to space is defined by the phenomenological interface

between the famous person and the world. “It’s like fame defines you to a certain degree: it

puffs you up, or it shrinks you down.” The celebrity world is described as: isolated; lonely;

not secure; you have a bubble over you; family space is violated; a sense of being watched;

you’re an animal in a cage; living in a fish bowl; like a locked room; and, familiarity that

breeds inappropriate closeness.

Theme 3. Causality.

Most celebrities reported feeling that fame is the cause of many obstacles that they

experience trying to live a normal life, something famous people say they covet. While they

report enjoying the spoils of the celebrity world, they bemoan the side of fame that shines an

unrelenting spotlight on their being-in-the-world. Famous people identify their celebrity as

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the cause of both positives and negatives in their lives. Not surprisingly, causality

encompasses the full scope of textural themes: depersonalization through “entitization;” loss

of privacy; trying to live up to expectations; ego inflation through gratuitous adoration;

experiencing symbolic immortality; increased wealth; unlimited access; developing mistrust

in others; the lure of temptations; and, familial concerns.

Theme 4. Materiality.

The theme of materiality is evident in the increased wealth of famous people. Fame

changes their lives in fundamental ways in the context of material things. Celebrities gain:

luxurious homes and expensive cars; the ability to travel the world; the ability to contribute

freely to charitable causes; and, the luxury of not having to consider nor worry about

monetary issues.

Theme 5. Bodyhood.

The prevalence of research data on the issue of bodyhood, revealed in rather obvious

ways the extent to which fame is experienced in the body. Participants described many

physical sensations and awarenesses in relation to their experience of being famous: I felt a

little more nervous, a little stomach tightening; my heart rate probably triples. I start to

stutter. My hands get real wet…my eyes…comes close to tearing; you start swirling inside; I

walk in and I get swarmed; hundreds of eyes are on you; and, there is a sense of anxiety with

me that kicks in immediately…I get prepared for that on-rush of being famous. The body

becomes a tool for communication, as celebrities use body postures and movements to let

others know how they feel. “There’re things you can politely do with your body language to

show them that they’re stepping on a line.” Eschewing words or verbal confrontation,

celebrities get their points across, with a “look” or by sending “the vibe.”

Theme 6. Relation to Self.

The celebrity’s relationship to self is deeply affected by the experience of being

famous. The intrapersonal world of the famous person changes in several basic ways:

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vulnerability in public; being “entitized;” ego inflation and gratification; isolation; a

combination of being flattered, embarrassed, and confused; suddenly you are worth

something; every day is your wedding reception. Every day is your prom. You are the center

of attention. Such focus on self can be confusing, embarrassing, while it is flattering.

Theme 7. Relation to Other.

The aspect of fame most lamented by research participants was the change in the

interpersonal world, the world of relating to other people. Before fame, celebrities enjoy the

anonymity of “just blending into a pack.” After fame, that sense of not standing out is lost.

Mistrust in others grows as people want a piece of the celebrity, befriending him or her in

order to stand near fame’s door. When fame hits, “everything and everybody around you

changes.” Celebrities construct emotional walls, and keep others “at arms length,” as they

discover, on their own, how to traverse an altered interpersonal landscape.

DISCUSSION

The results of this study indicate that life for celebrity participants is defined by ten

core existential themes progressing through a four phase developmental design. There are

five themes of a textural nature, and five themes that describe the celebrity’s structural world

of temporality, spatiality, causality, materiality, bodyhood, relationship to self, and

relationship to other.

Themes revealed in research participant text include: Entitization; Loss of Privacy;

Expectations; Ego Gratification; and Symbolic Immortality in relation to a person’s sense of

self. There is direct causality between the experience of being famous and the arising of these

textural themes. As the famous person basks in the glow of celebrity attention, he or she

eventually starts feeling a shift. From the safe harbor of anonymity, the celebrity finds him or

herself feeling entitized, like a toy in a shop window rather than an autonomous person. In

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order to cope with the overwhelming attention, the celebrity splits “self” in two: the “personal

self” and the “celebrity self.” The celebrity self can make the public appearances while the

personal self is protected by observing it from a safe psychological distance, much like a state

of dissociation. This is experienced by the famous person as a second awareness of him or

herself.

With the loss of anonymity comes loss of privacy. One cannot be famous and

anonymous at the same time. Anonymity is the price paid for fame, and with that, public

privacy. The famous person must be prepared to be the center of attention at any time, and

thus feels exposed. There is no running to the grocery store without considering its many

implications and potentialities.

The full-time job of being a celebrity can become exhausting. Always on call, being

famous comes with unending expectations from the world. Celebrities are left feeling like

everyone wants a piece of them, and there is not enough to go around. Celebrities are

American royalty. Sometimes, all the attention leads to the celebrity getting “peopled out,”

when it becomes too difficult to move into the public sphere. Having been made larger-than-

life, the celebrity feels separate from others, which can lead to a sense of isolation,

confirming the adage that it is lonely at the top.

From the lonely center, however, the celebrity is constantly wooed by society and

feels a sense of ego gratification for this attention. Fame makes the celebrity feel important

and admired, very much like the most popular person in high school. Many celebrities

confessed that fame can become self-serving, and ego inflation is something that must be

self-monitored. Ego gratification also comes through contributing something lasting to the

world through good or philanthropic works, using fame toward a positive end.

Fame can be made more lasting by extending it post-death into a symbolic

immortality, leaving a mark on the world through the creative expression of the celebrity’s

particular craft. Through books, movies, sports moments, historic interviews, insightful

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commentary, or legislation turned into law, the famous person feels he or she will have a

lasting presence in the world.

In relationship to other, textural themes include: Wealth; Access; Temptation;

Mistrust; and, Familial Concerns. As the stuff of celebrity experience becomes more

ordinary, the novelty of wealth is something that does not wear thin. The fame that

accompanies wealth, with its depersonalizing and invasive qualities, is accepted as a tolerable

price to pay for the financial peace of mind and elevated lifestyle with which wealth comes. It

is important to note that research participants also reported that there are elements of fame

that are enjoyable in and of themselves.

Access to the exclusive celebrity club is another welcomed by-product of being

famous. Not only is there wealth, but membership to an elite stratus of the society. Those who

are celebrated find that most doors are opened to them with a simple mention of their names.

With all the attention and acclaim, it becomes easier to lose sight of the more

grounding aspects of life. Celebrity families can suffer as a result, and the celebrity has to

find a middle way through the complicated path of fame in order to maintain a balanced and

harmonious existence. Sometimes, temptations can get the best of the celebrity, who becomes

used to the allure of the heady and jet-setting pace of celebrity life.

Over-attention can create a reticence in the celebrity to trust incoming waves of

adulation. Questions arise as to why people are so friendly, whose intentions are pure and

whose are not? This engagement with the world lays the foundation for a new a priori of

mistrust toward others which threatens to overtake the celebrity’s experience of being-in-the-

world. The circle of confidants grows smaller.

The family, automatically included in that circle, also pays a price for their famous

family member’s celebrity. Lost private time and undue pressures take their toll, as the

celebrity tries desperately to shield spouses and children from fame’s darker aspects.

Ultimately, fame’s phenomenal implications are unavoidable.

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As the celebrity seeks an effective way of being-in-the-world as a famous person,

acclimating to the experience, the relationship to world themes are experienced through four

phases: Love/Hate; Addiction; Acceptance; and, Adaptation. At first, the experience of

becoming famous provides much ego-stroking, and people find that it makes them feel

warmly embraced and admired. There is a guilty pleasure associated with the thrill of it. In

private moments, celebrities question the ego gratification they experience from fame. The

lure of celebrity is addictive, and it becomes hard to imagine living without it. Where does

the celebrity self go when fame passes? As the attention becomes overwhelming and

expectations, temptations, mistrust, and familial concerns come to the fore, the celebrity is

forced to accept fame’s accompanying phenomenal colorations. Only after accepting the “it

comes with the territory” edict can the celebrity adopt healthy adaptive behavior patterns to

help navigate fame’s sometimes choppy waters. At the same time, other adaptive patterns can

lead to reclusive tendencies, and loss of authenticity. The celebrities who report coping best

with fame say the longer they are exposed to fame’s stimuli, the more used to it they get, and

the easier it is to hold onto their authentic selves.

Temporally, it feels like fame “happens” to the person, who from then on is included

in a chosen group of celebrated people. Fame lasts for life at the same time that it is fleeting.

The spotlight may dim, but it shines on in absentia.

Space around the celebrity closes in, encapsulating the famous person in a bubble.

The paradox of isolation and a sense of being watched define celebrity existence. Fame

violates family space, is like living in a fishbowl, and can breed inappropriate closeness with

strangers. Being a celebrity in the public eye is felt in the body as swirling, stomach

tightening, nervousness, heart rate rising, eye-tearing, and a panicky sense of “where is the

nearest exit.” The celebrity feels his or her sense of space is compromised by a swarming

public and its ever-watchful eyes. Fame is seen as causing all of these existential conditions.

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While celebrities enjoy the materiality of wealth and access, the cost of fame is not

lost on the people who are asked to pay it. When winding down their personal stories,

however, the existential illumination of their worlds, every research participant offered that

he or she would not trade fame back, obstacles and hardships notwithstanding. The personal

aspects of fame affirm the celebrity’s being-in-the-world to an extent that makes it worth the

loss of freedoms with which it comes. Freedom of movement, freedom from invasion of a

voyeuristic public, freedom to be blissfully unaware of one’s being-in-the-world is sacrificed

for the glory, access, and wealth that accessorize the experience of being famous.

Limitations of Research

The intention of this study was to uncover the experiential unknowns underlying the

world of fame, shedding light on the psychological and existential consideration of being a

celebrity in contemporary culture. This study is limited by the degree to which participants

felt free to self-disclose to the researcher. With a deeply imbedded a priori of mistrust, there

may be yet deeper layers of celebrity being-in-the-world that were not revealed in this study.

As one of the first research studies of its kind, there is ample room for further scientific

investigation of celebrity experience.

The results of this study are also limited by the inability to discern specific details of

research participants’ childhood environments. Short of taking a family history, there is no

way to assess the degree of narcissistic wounding that may have occurred in early

developmental years, which may be as responsible for a celebrity’s particular reactions to the

experience of being famous as fame itself. It is difficult to assess what percentage of

celebrities who display characteristics of ASN (which include the tendency to be self-

absorbed and “focused on the world’s reaction to you… rather than your reaction to the

world”) are responding to the bare experience of being famous, and which are fulfilling needs

established much earlier in life. Though the personal etiology of ASN may remain a mystery,

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the manifestation in celebrities of narcissistic behaviors may be a warning sign for the need

for psychological intervention.

Implications for Future Study

Corr (2001) states that, “Stardom is a fascinating psychological phenomenon,

providing a window through which we witness basic emotional processes; as such it is a topic

worthy of serious scientific attention” (p. 367). This study into the psychology of fame and

the affective and behavioral responses to it is just the beginning of what could be a larger

body of research on the subject. Society, hungering for images from which to model, creates

the celebrity structure, yet there are few studies on record to discern the effects this system

might have on the people it drafts for its elite team. Issues of personality development and

individual differences among celebrity cogs in the fame machine go unconsidered and

unexamined. Amidst all the fanfare, the psychological health of the figurehead is ignored.

Additional studies should be undertaken to explore therapeutic interventions that would be

helpful to this category of people, sorely overlooked by a mental health model that focuses its

energies on pathology rather than on self-actualization and wellness. If society is bent on

using the celebrity to affirm itself, it should consider creating psychological oases within the

intra and interpersonal minefield that celebrity experience can become.

It is important to follow-up on the results of my study in future studies, by examining

the cognitive and affective states that become markers of psychological distress and can be

identified as possible entry points for therapeutic intervention. Every celebrity who agreed to

become a research participant in this study was included in the findings. Access to celebrity

participants, by necessity, was limited to personal and professional connections. Thus, the

sampling issues presented by the data include a willingness on the part of the celebrities to

share the full range of fame’s impact on their lives. That notwithstanding, and while stressing

that they would not willingly give fame up, the data also shows that celebrities develop an

emotional attachment to the experience of being famous, exhibited by the famous person’s

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professed craving of fame in the face of its more negative side effects. Future qualitative

research studies focusing on themes identified by this study such as depersonalization,

temptation, and mistrust, could pinpoint where in the process of being a celebrity tendencies

to isolate or dissociate may begin.

The experience of being famous can have disastrous implications for the celebrity

and his or her family. As a member of this type of family who has struggled with such issues,

my interest in the topic does not end with this dissertation. I would like to initiate a follow-up

to this study, examining the experience of being a family member of a famous person. It

would answer the query, what is the experience of being the child/spouse of a celebrity?

Family members would be interviewed phenomenologically, discerning the impact that living

in the celebrity world has on those who, by extension, inhabit it. If truthful answers could be

ascertained, this latter study would round out the results of my study, elucidating the

experience of family members who share life from opposite ends of the same existential

paradigm. From there, a family systems approach could be developed to deal with celebrity

families in need of therapeutic intervention.

Another area of further research is investigating how the worlds of fame and

journalism intersect in contemporary culture. What happens when newscasters become news

stars? How do journalists function in today’s celebrity-crazed world as observers and

information gatherers when they become bigger news than the story they are covering? What

impact does the celebritization of journalists have on the important role that they play as

representatives of the nation’s news media, entrusted as the fourth estate with the critical job

of keeping the greater society informed through investigative inquiry? A qualitative study of

the experience of journalist-celebrities would add to the field of psychology as well as

communication and media studies.

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