Much has changed since I worked in the Fame Factory as an editor, exploiting big names to sell magazines and, in the circular process, enlarging their status as media megastars.
But even in today’s climate of disposable celebrities who are quickly used up like Kleenex, there is still the rare publicity saint, where mere mention of a name invokes automatic interest over time, as Barack Obama and Sarah Palin (sorry to say) now do.
Merit is moot–it’s the tingle of curiosity that attaches to every sighting or utterance, no matter how trivial or vapid, as evidenced by reports that Palin is signing a $7 million book deal and by a magazine editor’s breathless comment that “photos of her just sitting there, looking like a normal person, could go for solid five-figure sums.”
At the other end of the substance scale, Obama’s imminent presidency recalls the editorial excitement over JFK.