Who is a celebrity?

Before we talk about celebrities, we need to understand who or what a celebrity is.

Consider some previous attempts to define this term:

• Celebrity: A famous or well-known person (dictionary)

• “Celebrity: the advantage of being known by those who don’t know you” (French writer Chamfort, Maximes et pensées, late 18^th century)

• “A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized” (comedian and radio show host Fred Allen, Treadmill to Oblivion, 1954)

Historian and professor Daniel Boorstin suggested that a celebrity is a “person who is known for his well-knownness” (1961). Boorstin argued that celebrities are “manufactured for us”. They have no substance. But this wasn't always the case: Boorstin believed that there was  time when fame was something achieved only by those who had accomplished something - writers, scientists, military leaders, and of course some actors and singers (but only the truly talented ones). All these celebrities had accomplished something significant.

But in the 1960s, when Boorstin was writing his book The Image, Boorstin thought that fame didn’t seem to require any significant accomplishment anymore.

What do we call this today? Famous for being famous.

Boorstin suggested that the more celebrity you had, the less greatness you had. Based on this assumption, the fame bestowed upon a celebrity devalues genuine fame that has been earned through accomplishments.

What do you think about this idea? Does celebrity without accomplishment take away from celebrity with accomplishment?