rm | of interest for reasons obvious

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."