The Star as Icon: Celebrity in the Age of Mass Communication

By Daniel Herwitz. New York: Columbia University Press, October 2008. Cloth: ISBN: 978-0-231-14540-4, $24.50. 157 pages.

Review by Erik M. Walker, Quincy College, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Ultimately, can one ever truly define the star icon? In an insightful book that blends philosophy with an attempt to dissect both popular culture and the consumers of popular culture, Daniel Herwitz explores the creation and evolution of the star icon. In his preface, Herwitz sets his tone and establishes his purpose by asking, “What is it about film and television culture, the star system, and consumer society that have made the star icon what she is”? The book then sets out to investigate the phenomenon of star icon, all the while redefining it and posing even more questions. The first chapter uses Diana’s funeral—and then looks back at the events of her life—to weave together a definition of celebrity that is “increasingly a media effect combined with public appetite” (18). Herwitz nicely explores the role of physiognomy in the making of the star, and discusses how “through the lens of a camera her physiognomy became the grounds for her sincerity” and Diana was elevated to film star power (8). Herwitz discusses the icons of his childhood, stating simply, “I am trying in this book to understand the icons I loved before I was old enough to grasp the force of this attraction” (25), and uses Andy Warhol’s “universe of the cult icon: a beautiful, cruel universe” (31) to point out the difference between art icons and celebrity icons. While art or music icons have sustainability and are archived in museums or concert halls, star icons are a product of their immediate time. Herwitz has clear insight into the irony that the star icon is both powerful and powerless, noting, “the icon figure is powerless before our gaze, but we, we are also powerless in our awe before it/her” (39). Much of the middle of the book is devoted to film and television. Herwitz suggests that America has no equivalent icon to Diana (or any Royal) because “American is too much in love with commoners” (43). Thus, film and television create American star icons, and Herwitz sets out to define an “aura” and how aesthetics contribute to that aura and, therefore, the star icon. Herwitz suggests the star icon system depends on a specific formula of “film aura, limited public access, and controlled removal from the public” to feed the public’s increased desire for news. The two chapters of the book devoted purely to film study are a must-read, with Herwitz showing that through film, stars are born, and describing how films converge around and spy upon the star icon. In these chapters, it is clear that the author is both fan and critic of film and popular culture. In a chapter on television, Herwitz studies talk shows and the television serial and investigates how television creates and maintains stars, although he notes that the medium tends to reduce stars to “celebrity product” (102). Unlike film’s ability to create stars by using publicity but then removing them from the public eye, thus increasing interest in the star, television attempts to make stars familiar and gives the audience the impression that it is seeing these stars up close and personal. The chapter is particularly insightful when discussing film’s accurate portrayal of television in The Truman Show. While audiences watch television series expecting resolution, the resolution usually fails to completely come, and Herwitz expertly analyzes the ending of the television show The Sopranos by studying audience expectations. Although an audience expects resolution, Herwitz suggests that the seeming lack of ending in the finale of The Sopranos is “perhaps the most honest ending television can invent” because it is one “that understands that, with the series, all endings are unreal” (114). The chapter is one of the more insightful and interesting ones in the book, and yet it seems disconnected from the mission of the book. While the chapter does discuss television aura, much of the discussion of The Truman Show and The Sopranos fails to connect to the focus on the star icon. Who is the “star” of these shows and what do these shows us about the star icon? The answer seems absent. In Chapter 2, Herwitz asserts that “this is not a ‘Diana’ book” (23). Structurally, the problem is the book is a Diana book. Three of the nine chapters of the book concentrate entirely on Diana, and she is used as an example in several others. And when focused on Diana, the book is wonderfully focused and sophisticated. The author keenly acknowledges the star icon as a figure in the spotlight but not desiring to be; the star icon’s success and failure are both equally cheered by the public until the public is ready to move on to its next star. But when the book diverts from the examples of Diana or the Hollywood stars of the past, the author seems more content to simply explore and pose questions without answering the book’s thesis. While the television program The Sopranos and some modern film actors are mentioned, the book desperately sets out to be culturally relevant today—yet uses examples (Diana, Jackie O, and Grace Kelly) that are firmly rooted in the past. With the ways the media is changing (new media is not even discussed), it’s hard not to see this book more as a history than as a contemporary study of the star icon. Marilyn Monroe and Elvis grace the pages, but there is not a single mention of Madonna or Britney Spears. Near the end of the work, the author admits, “But here I am still stunned by the icon, still overwhelmed by her aesthetic power” (143). Readers of The Star As Icon will feel the same: The book will make you think—then rethink—about how our society treats and mistreats the star. The book is fascinating and addictive, and much like the very star icons Herwitz is writing about, you will find yourself unable to look away from this philosophical and scholarly text.