No, not the heavenly bodies- I am pondering the word “star” in the sense of “famous” or”celebrity”. Specifically- when did anyone who can get on TV for any reason be called a star?
I am embarrassed to admit that I have gotten sucked into the latest season of the TV show Dancing with the Star. It’s mostly because of my Even Lysacek OCD thing I have going on. As much as I hate to admit it, no one- not even hottie Evan- really falls into the “star” category to me. Probably the closest one on the show to true star status is Pamela Anderson. That doesn’t say much about our tastes as a country but it would be difficult to argue that she is the one who the most people have heard of for one reason or another. It’s possible to make the case that more people have heard of Buzz Aldrin but I don’t think anyone anywhere would try to call Buzz a star in the normal sense of the word. I have heard a lot of reasons why DWTS stars is a dumb show (and most of them are true). But for some reason that fact that the contestants aren’t actually stars isn’t one of the things I’ve heard.
When I think of a star I think if someone like George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston. Someone who is very well known to a overwhelming percentage of people. Someone who my dad might even know! I can guarantee that my dad has no idea who Kate Gosslin or Jake the Batchelor is and quite frankly I think he’s lucky for that. But I digress.
I don’t see this new and expanded definition of “star” changing as long as people are willing to buy tabloids or go to tmz.com to get their fix of semi-famous people and I don’t see people changing their willingness to do these things any time soon. And that’s kind of sad.