1. What Makes a Celebrity?

2. Celebrity Residual
Talent = a person's natural, extraordinary skill or ability
Fame = a person's renown (how well-known a person is)
Celebrity = the phenomenon of the public collectively caring about a person beyond their talent and deserved fame
Celebrity Residual = the difference between a person's actual fame, and their deserved fame (or talent).

3. Fame - Talent = Celebrity Residual

4. Lady Gaga's Fame
Talent
Celebrity Residual

5. Kim Kardashian's Fame
Talent
Celebrity Residual

6. Lebron James' Fame
Talent
Celebrity Residual

7. Barack Obama's Fame
Talent
Celebrity Residual

8. Justin Bieber's Fame
Talent
Celebrity Residual

9. Snooki's Fame
Talent
Celebrity Residual

10. ”Fame, which used to be connected to honor, and bestowed by achievement, has now become so separated from either that it exists in a category of its own, frequently valueless and often unrelated to anything resembling actual accomplishment.” - Leo Braudy Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

11. Description
This is an activity teaching students the components of celebrity as Elizabeth Currid-Halkett describes them in Starstruck: The Business of Celebrity. It is important that students understand these components of celebrity before discussing some of the issues presented in the book. The definitions of key words are given and a pie chart is shown as a visual to how the components relate to each other. Next, examples of celebrities are displayed with a photograph of the celebrity and a blank pie chart, so that students can practice understanding the components of celebrity using current and relevant examples. Ideally this presentation would be given on a Smartboard so that students could fill in the pie charts with red and blue pens as a class activity that includes student interaction with technology. However, this could also be handed out as a worksheet to students to complete in small groups. Current celebrities are used so that students know the celebrity, can make a judgment call on the celebrity, and will have fun in the process. The celebrities can be updated to match the student culture and the current media. Finally, there is a quote regarding the current state of 'fame'. After judging the fame of several celebrities. Students should be able to discuss in small groups or as a class whether they agree with the quote and think that fame and accomplishment are no longer linked. The teacher could expand on this and ask follow up questions such as “Is this necessarily a bad thing?”, “What could some of the effects of this be?”, etc.
Subject: Celebrity/Culture
Instructional Component Type: Vocabulary and graphic organizers used to explain the components of celebrity
Keywords: Celebrity, culture, fame, talent, celebrity residual, media