163* The Drama of Celebrity with Sharon Marcus (JP)

January 29, 2026·32 min·2 clips

Actress Margaret Sullivan told her daughters 'movie stars aren't special' — and then moved the family from Hollywood to a Connecticut farm to prove it.

The frame is celebrity itself. Rather than treating stars as products of one machine, Sharon Marcus sets several theories beside one another and lets their limits show. The culture industry matters, but it is not the whole story. So does an active public, imagined through subculture, punk, and the Birmingham School's thinking about style and community. Adorno stays in the background as later theorists rethink his question and look for a livelier account of publics. Fans are not sitting still. They decide whether an invitation to admire a would-be star turns into attention. Stars also shape themselves. The guest gives some credit to the everyday idea that stars make themselves, then pushes back on how neat that sounds. Talent, media sense, public management, and the ability to read celebrity all matter. Power stays spread out. Industry workers, audiences, and performers each have agency, but none can create a star alone. The host keeps the conversation measured, moving from Reagan to subculture theory and then into everyday beliefs about fame. Even when the examples touch rock stars, fans, singing, and sports, the question stays the same: what work does celebrity do? The answer is interaction. Institutions offer images, publics accept or reject them, and stars learn to manage media and attention.

As heard by us

A patient, theory-heavy look at how fame gets made and believed.

The discussion treats celebrity as a product of culture industry pressure, audience belief, and the labor stars put into their own image. Sharon Marcus and John Plotz move from Adorno to the Birmingham School, then through punk, subculture, and a plainspoken folk theory before…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want celebrity theory that treats stars, fans, and the culture industry as part of the same system.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from New Books in Film