ABSTRACT
Within the academy, as well, the analysis of celebrity, celebrities and celebrity culture has been one of the growth industries for the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, there has been a bandwagon effect as the celebrity of celebrity studies has grown. A concerted attempt to make a proper intellectual investment in the study of celebrity is, then, both timely and worthwhile. The difficult research question, however, and one that really must be at the heart of celebrity studies, is what to make of celebrity culture as a social or cultural formation. It is important that celebrity studies does more than simply participate as just one further contributor to the discursive regime surrounding celebrity. While the textual complexity and dynamism of celebrity culture is among its key attractions, celebrity studies must be aware of the danger of responding only to that – of using its analytical strategies to produce something that is, in the end, largely descriptive.
