Alixtii has an excellent post on the issues of celebrity, constructs, and "reality" (warning: postmodernism!) here.

It fits in very well with what I believe, especially my theory that the idea there is some true/core/immutable self that can be "known" in first life real world primary world interactions (as opposed to through media or through other mediating texts) just does not make sense.

I think interactions whether face/face or through writing in any media are always already meditated. I think we embed a lot of interactions with others in our own narratives told inside our heads and make them serve our plots without realizing they're doing the same to us, and it's all fictional to some extent, why, yes, I am postmodern but only with a small p.

Anyway, I was thinking about all this when reading about the economic gift Britney Spears is to the US economy in the Dallas paper recently (how accurate these figures are, who knows, but they're arresting).

From a report in Portfolio magazine:

Britney Spears contributes from $110-120 million to the US economy and *more* when she's on tour.

The celebrity photographers make $4 million/year off selling her picture.

Record companies, promoters, licensers, etc. make $30-$40 million a year from selling products.

Her ex-hubby earns a million off her name: according to this, clubs pay him to show up.

The biggest piece of the pie goes to newspapers, magazines, other media: $75 million.

Tabloids sell 33% more copies when she's on the cover.

I don't know how much she makes from all this, but it's clear a helluva lot of people earn their living using the image of her body.

I've occasionally expressed the idea that those who shriek about how writers of RPS "exploit" and "damage" the celebrities should take a look at the huge exploitation that is celebrity culture in this country.

And, yes, as fans we exist within that celebrity culture, and we're often blamed for the worst excesses of it. But man, we're not making any money off it.

I knew tabloids make a lot of money--but, wow, it's not just tabloids, it's a lot of media. And what in all this media coverage of her in any way shows "respect" or anything remotely valuing her abilities, talents, or basic humanity?

And she is just one example (and a reason why all those who shriek about protecting children might want to consider making exploiting your children in some public entertainment venue illegal), and maybe an extreme one, but still....

Given the damage she has clearly suffered in this media cannibalism, a degree of attention that cannot be justified by anything she's actually done, I have to ask--just wtf is going on (insert obligatory bread and circuses being so popular during the fall of the Roman republic and empire, sigh).