Celebrity
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports or the entertainment industry, their position as a political figure, or even from their connection to another celebrity. 'Celebrity' usually implies a favorable public image, as opposed to the neutrals 'famous' or 'notable', or the negatives 'infamous' and 'notorious'.[1][2]
For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation).Wealth
Forbes Celebrity 100
Forbes magazine releases an annual Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the highest-paid celebrities in the world. When the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans was first released in 1982, only two artists were selected: Yoko Ono and Bob Hope. At that time, only $150 million in net assets were needed. In the next twenty years, only six people barely entered.[24]The total earnings for all top celebrity 100 earners totaled $4.5 billion in 2010 alone.Taylor Swift has been named the highest earning celebrity in the world today, and the Forbes Annual Celebrity Rich List has been released.[25]
For instance, Forbes ranked media mogul and talk show host, Oprah Winfrey as the top earner "Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the most powerful celebrities", with earnings of $290 million in the past year. Forbes cites that Lady Gaga reportedly earned over $90 million in 2010.[26] In 2011, golfer Tiger Woods was one of highest-earning celebrity athletes, with an income of $74 million and is consistently ranked one of the highest-paid athletes in the world.[26] In 2013, Madonna was ranked as the fifth most powerful and the highest-earning celebrity of the year with earnings of $125 million. She has consistently been among the most powerful and highest-earning celebrities in the world, occupying the third place in Forbes Celebrity 100 2009 with $110 million of earnings, and getting the tenth place in the 2011 edition of the list with annual earnings equal to $58 million.[27] Beyoncé has also appeared in the top ten in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017, and topped the list in 2014 with earnings of $115 million.[28] Cristiano Ronaldo followed by Lionel Messi in 2020 became the first two athletes in a team sport to surpass $1 billion in earnings during their careers.[29]
Forbes also lists the top-earning dead celebrities, with singer Michael Jackson, fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien and children's author Roald Dahl each topping the annual list with earnings of $500 million over the course of a year.[30][31]
Access restriction
Access to celebrities is strictly controlled by their entourage of staff which includes managers, publicists, agents, personal assistants, and bodyguards. Even journalists find it difficult to access celebrities for interviews. Writer and actor Michael Musto said, "You have to go through many hoops just to talk to a major celebrity. You have to get past three different sets of publicists: the publicist for the event, the publicist for the movie, and then the celebrity's personal publicist. They all have to approve you."[55]
Celebrities also typically have security staff at their home, to protect them from similar threats.[56]
Health implications
Common threats such as stalking have spawned celebrity worship syndrome where a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity's personal life.[58] The audience is curious to know everything about the stars they admire, which leads the media to try to invade their private lives by obtaining the most popular gossip about them. Due to their constant attention, their personal lives are excessively exposed and their luxurious lifestyle is kept in the public eye, sometimes even destroying the lives of celebrities. [59]There is a law that prohibits people from obtaining personal information without permission. Celebrities should be granted the same laws, but on the contrary, paparazzi tend to ignore these laws and broadcast their daily lives without necessary reasons. [60] Psychologists have indicated that though many people obsess over glamorous film, television, sport and music stars, the disparity in salaries in society seems to value professional athletes and entertainment industry-based professionals.[61][62] One study found that singers, musicians, actors and athletes die younger on average than writers, composers, academics, politicians and businesspeople, with a greater incidence of cancer and especially lung cancer. However, it was remarked that the reasons for this remained unclear, with theories including innate tendencies towards risk-taking as well as the pressure or opportunities of particular types of fame.[63]
Fame might have negative psychological effects, and may lead to increasingly selfish tendencies and psychopathy.[64] An academic study on the subject said that fame has an addictive quality to it. When a celebrity's fame recedes over time, the celebrity may find it difficult to adjust psychologically.[65]
Recently, there has been more attention toward the impact celebrities have on health decisions of the population at large.[66] It is believed that the public will follow celebrities' health advice to some extent.[67] This can have positive impacts when the celebrities give solid, evidence-informed health advice, however, it can also have detrimental effects if the health advice is not accurate enough.
