1st Edition

The Star and Celebrity Confessional

Edited By Sean Redmond Copyright 2011
    172 Pages
    by Routledge

    172 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this book the different manifestations, meanings, and processes of the star and celebrity confessional will be explored. 
    The confessional is taken to be any moment in which a star, celebrity, or fan engages in revelatory acts that are considered to be authentic, heart-felt, and honest. These confessional encounters can take place in an interview, through performance and presentation events, online, and in ‘unscripted’ encounters. A star may break down in tears, or reveal a previously unknown truth about their private life. However, this authenticity is often found to have been manufactured, or is timed to occur against a new release or product launch. Alternatively, the desire to confess may be seen to draw attention to the centrality of pseudo forms of emotion in contemporary culture and the obsessional behaviour it produces.  In this book authors consider acts of confession by celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, Jade Goody, Britney Spears, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tracey Emin, and Russell Crowe.

    1. Introduction: the star and celebrity confessional  Sean Redmond
    2. Stardom, celebrity and the para-confession  Barry King
    3. Jade’s confession: racism and the dialectics of celebrity  Momin Rahman
    4. Pieces of me: celebrity confessional carnality  Sean Redmond
    5. Still something else besides a mother? Negotiating celebrity motherhood in Sarah Jessica Parker’s star story  Deborah Jermyn
    6. Living with fame: Geri and Living with Michael Jackson  Ian Goode
    7. The ethical violence of celebrity chat: Russell Crowe and David Gulpilil  Felicity Collins
    8. For the love of Jodie Foster: star demystification and national configuration  Gabriel Wettach
    9. Articulating authenticity through artifice: the contemporary relevance of Tracey Emin’s confessional art  Christine Fanthome
    10. ‘‘I feel your pain’’: cosmopolitan charity and the public fashioning of the celebrity soul  Jo Littler
    11. Restricted confessions? Blogging, subcultural celebrity and the management of producer fan proximity  Bertha Chin and Matt Hills

    Biography

    Sean Redmond is Senior Lecturer in Film at Victoria University of wellington. He is editor of Celebrity Studies, and co-editor of Framing Celebrity: New Directions in Celebrity Culture (Routledge, 2006). He is presently working on the monographs Celebrity and the Media, and Emotional Celebrity.