
How America's obsession with celebrities reshapes our society, from the former editor of People magazine who witnessed it firsthand. Walter Isaacson calls it essential "in our age of Kardashians and Trumps" - a revealing look at fame's power to both divide and define us.
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What happens when a society values fame more than heroism? This transformation unfolded before my eyes at People magazine when our eighteenth issue featuring a bare-chested Telly Savalas became our first million-seller. That moment revealed the combustible power of media exposure mixed with sex appeal-a fundamental shift in American culture. While creating features like "Sexiest Man Alive" and publishing increasingly revealing celebrity photos, I noticed something disturbing: in focus groups, people could no longer name heroes. Like Gresham's law where cheap currency drives out valuable currency, celebrities had displaced heroes in our collective consciousness. The gap between public image and reality became starkly apparent when, as a Princeton sophomore in 1963, I interviewed Malcolm X. Despite his media portrayal as an angry radical, I found him patient, professorial, and direct. This lesson continued at People magazine, where we discovered readers cared more about celebrities as ordinary people than as actors playing roles. Celebrity has troubled society since ancient times. The Roman poet Juvenal lamented in 120 CE that the public "meddle no more and long eagerly for just two things-Bread and Circuses!" Where the ancients saw gods at work, we now project our needs onto celebrities. Throughout history, fame was positive-something achieved through exceptional behavior. The Enlightenment transformed relationships between people and their leaders, with new media technologies creating the first modern celebrities. Citizens felt they knew leaders like George Washington as "friends." By the mid-eighteenth century, celebrity had spread beyond military leaders to actors, clergy, musicians, and writers. Have we created a culture where fame itself, rather than achievement, has become our highest aspiration?
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Cree par des anciens de Columbia University a San Francisco
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Cree par des anciens de Columbia University a San Francisco

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