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Celebrity, Inc.: How Famous People Make Money (2000)

by Jo Piazza(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 2

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English

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review 1: As an avid reader of celebrity gossip magazines, websites and memoirs, I thought I knew a bit about how celebrity works. At the very least, I knew celebs often court the press and get paid for photo ops. But from reading Jo Piazza's excellent expose Celebrity, Inc., I learned so many more ways celebrities can and do earn money and position their brands in what she calls the Hollywood Industrial Complex. Tackling everything from the rise of the celebrity baby market (and its source, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt), one of the most remarkable chapters in that the numbers are so astronomical, to how Kim Kardashian outdid Paris Hilton in the world of reality TV and its attended much more than fifteen minutes of fame, to Tim McGraw's fragrance line, how rap beefs boost sales, and how celebr... moreities' popularity is measured, Piazza offers up lessons that have stayed with me every time I read a magazine or see a piece of gossip. Piazza also makes it clear that whether it's creating a more charitable image or creating a digital footprint, celebrities must continue to innovate and analyze their own images to stay in the game, lest someone new come along and usurp their role in the power hierarchy. Anyone active online will appreciate her chapter about Ashton Kutcher and his involvement in the tech world, which has both made him plenty of money via various income streams but paved the way for companies to capitalize on celebrity brands online. Definitely worth reading for anyone interested in the inner workings of the financing of celebrity, persona and fame.
review 2: As a non-consumer of most celebrity gossip-based media, the underlying subject matter of this book is outside the scope of what would normally get my attention. After reading it, however, I almost think that on some level it's intentionally directed to people like me -- people who are less interested in the celebrity stories themselves than in the strategic business interests that many of us suspect are secretly driving them.Full of candid insights and disclosures from the players actually involved in marketing celebrities (through increasingly unconventional and evolving outlets), it's a fascinating read if you've ever wondered what's actually going on in the celebrity world, who's pulling the strings to make it happen, and how they and their clients get rich as a result. The analysis is backed up with hard statistics, including charts and graphs, but the prose is breezy and engaging. I highly recommend it both to the celebrity news audience and to dubious outsiders. less

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