Page 219 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

STEPHEN HINERMAN

actor not always the character. Still, curiosity about the symbolic space between
‘roles’ remains and stimulates even more interest.
This powerful tension between the public and private selves of stars
stems from the way media narratives work. As DeCordova observes about film
stars:

The body that appears in fiction films actually has an ambiguous and
complex status: at any moment one can theoretically locate two bodies
in the one: a body produced (that of the character) and a body pro-
ducing (that of the actor). Attention to the former draws the spectator
into the representation of character within the fiction. Attention to the
latter, on the other hand, draws the spectator into a specific path of
intertextuality that extends outside the text as formal system.
(1990: 19, 20)
Ambiguity and tension around the public/private nexus create provocative
questions of ‘authenticity’ which swirl around stardom. There are many ways
to try to resolve the uncertainty: by reading fan magazines, watching info-
tainment shows, conversing with friends and co-workers. Still, the soul behind
the mask will always be enigmatic.
The paradigmatic tension between the public and private life of the star
began to be exploited by film companies as soon as stardom arose (DeCordova
1991: 26). Celebrity gossip and fanzines appeared simultaneously with the
creation of stars, all of which helped build a sense of the exciting internal life of
the star, which then stimulated more public curiosity. Studios soon learned to
appreciate the market value of this public/private duality; indeed, the dialectical
spin between the star as star, and the star as human being, has become an
essential element of stardom. Tributary media such as the tabloid press, enter-
tainment television shows, and overnight paperback biographies are all cogs in
the machinery of modern star production (Smith 1993: xvi).

Fan identity
Why do we need the pleasures we derive from star gazing? Do these pleasures
simply give us a temporary thrill as we move from one star to the next?
Research on fans (Lewis 1992) suggests otherwise; it indicates that the pleasures
experienced by consuming stars take on stable meanings that are central to the
identities of modern people. Let us return briefly, then, to the role of identity
in modernity.
John B. Thompson observes that the non-reciprocal intimacy created
by modernity puts great pressure on individual personalities. With the speeding
up of time and the collapsing of space, individual identities today develop
though a process Thompson calls ‘quasi-mediated interaction’. According to
Thompson:

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