Celebrity Culture 1

Some sportspeople also become celebrities, especially footballers

This is World Xtra from the BBC. In this series we look at various ideas that you may hear about in the news and current affairs programmes.

John talks to an expert in every programme, who can tell us all about the topic. Today’s topic is celebrity culture and famous people.
John: Hello. Today, why do we love famous people? To find out we spoke to the BBC’s Entertainment reporter Fiona Prior who tells us all about celebrity culture.
World Xtra from the BBC
John: You’ll hear Fiona talking about Reality TV shows. These are programmes where ordinary people’s lives are followed from week to week. Although the people taking part seem to be ordinary, they actually lead extraordinary or very interesting lives. She mentions other TV programmes where people have become famous – quiz shows. Fiona says it is hard to pin down celebrity culture. In other words it is difficult to define precisely what celebrity culture really is.
John: Fiona, is it possible to define what celebrity culture really is?

Tukar format AV

Fiona: It’s very hard to define who is a famous person. You know, if you appear on a reality TV show, does that make you famous? If you appear on a quiz show does that make you famous? So it’s really hard to pin down exactly what celebrity culture is.
John: Recently there have been many more news stories about celebrities that are married – celebrity couples, and Fiona suggests this has led to our increased interest in celebrity culture. She speaks about the rise of the Beckhams. The Beckhams are British football star David Beckham and his wife Victoria. Their fame has been on the rise. She mentions Britney Spears, another famous celebrity in Britain and America, and what she did to attract more attention from the newspapers and TV.
Fiona: I think celebrity culture goes back years and years and years. As long as we’ve had TV and photographers, but I think it’s really grown in the last few years. What with the growth of the internet, mobile phones with cameras on, all these things contribute. And of course there’s the rise of the Beckhams, David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, that certainly helped boost interest in the celebrity culture. But I think last year when pictures of Britney Spears shaving her head shot all over the world I think that’s when people started to stop and think “Hang on this has gone a bit too far”.
World Xtra from the BBC

Programmes where ordinary people’s lives are followed from week to week.

Reality TV shows

So, do you think celebrity culture has gone too far?
Let’s look again at some of the words we heard John and Fiona use.
First – Celebrity. The word celebrity can be used as a noun – a celebrity, meaning a famous person. People can be famous for all sorts of reasons, but the word celebrity is usually used to talk about people who are famous in the field of entertainment, for example film or TV stars, pop stars, models and so on. Some sportspeople also become celebrities, especially footballers, because football is such a popular sport. In popular culture shows or magazines you might hear the abbreviation ‘celeb’ meaning celebrity.
‘Celebrity’ can also be used as an adjective – we heard John and Fiona use phrases like ‘celebrity culture’ and ‘celebrity couples’.
John mentioned ‘reality TV shows’ – these have become very popular, and it’s possible for people to become very famous – to become celebrities, by appearing on them. Sometimes, people who have become famous in this way, and who have no particular skill or talent which they are famous for, are described as being ‘famous for being famous’!
Today’s programme was about celebrity culture.