of interest for reasons obvious

[rm]

At the Hollywood Show

"I also don’t think of myself as a fan, largely because adoration seems a betrayal of reason. Fall in love with a star, and you might not want to admit just how bad he is in his next movie. These, of course, are lies that I like to tell myself.

The truth is that movie love is itself a form of collecting, and to live with the movies, to write and watch and read about them day after day, year after year, is a form of intense worship. The word fan is thought to come from the word fanatic, which derives from the Latin word fanaticus, “of a temple.” Hollywood was built on such adoration, with ornate movie palaces that were shrines, and stars whose ethereal beauty made them virtual gods and goddesses.

...

The world of collecting can be a shadowy enterprise, but what was most striking about the Hollywood Show was its ordinariness, the absence of frenzy and desperation that often colors the discourse on fans and stars. Only after I had wandered through the show several times, looking into the faces of people who had given me so much pleasure over the years, did I realize how badly I had misunderstood the event when I first walked in. However enjoyable and gratifying their exchanges with the fans, these were actors at work. As they smiled for us, signed our photographs, shared their memories, they were also giving us a performance. And like all performances, they were as manufactured as they were absolutely real."

Comments

[splix.livejournal.com]

This is why I never want to meet my idols. I want to preserve the glossy illusion. :)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Fall in love with a star, and you might not want to admit just how bad he is in his next movie.

Oh, yes, this has indeed happened.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

This is why I always say: "What a fantastic persona!" when I see an actor/singer/famous writer/celeb that I admire be nice to fans or go to con and put on a show for the fans (re: the Tennant/Barrowman Kiss at SDCC this year).

I don't want to know who they are, really, I like the performance the people I admire and maybe just brush up to them a little bit. That's the fun of being an admirer.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Is that then the basis of RPF? that the persona is as much a character as any character the actor plays?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, in some cases.

I mean, from a legal, literary, scholarly basis (i.e., that anthology Starf*ckers), absolutely. From a "what people do in fandom" basis -- sometimes. I mean, I've seen some pretty delusional stuff and disclaimers that really, really were more "I can read the minds of people I've never met" that put me quite far off.

But, ideally, yeah.

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

I always think of Peter Sellers on the Muppet Show and what he said there:

"There is no me, I do not exist. There used to be a me...but I had it surgically removed."