ABSTRACT
On 9 January 2003, an 'exclusive' appears on the front page of the Sun, Britain's biggest-selling newspaper. Hollywood film star Cameron Diaz has spots! The brazen headline, 'Why Cameron stayed out of the SPOTlight', is coupled with a large, unforgiving close-up of the actress, her blotchy face exposed for all to see. At the time, the expose of Diaz's acne attracted a great deal of interest in the tabloids and celebrity magazines, and the actress's skin troubles have since kept resurfacing as a news item in these media. For some, this would epitomize key trends with regard to the role of celebrity in contemporary journalism, where the tabloid focus on this sphere is seen as part of a 'dumbing down' of the media climate. Yet research into the consumption of tabloid celebrity coverage is virtually non-existent. Why is it popular? This essay explores how tabloid stories about celebrities function in the everyday lives of their readers. Based on qualitative research with young readers of the Sun and the Daily Mirror, the circulation leaders among the popular tabloids, it provides an empirical study of some of the social and cultural functions of this genre where celebrity is concerned.!
