📘 Part 3: Celebrities and Fame

This episode's vocabulary

Fame and fortune (binomial phrase) – success and a lot of money. → Many people dream of achieving fame and fortune.

Go to someone's head (idiom) – to make someone think that they are more important than they really are. → His early success went to his head, and he became arrogant.

Rack up (phrasal verb) – to accumulate or achieve something, such as a number or amount. → Child stars often rack up criminal convictions as they get older.

Notoriety (noun) – the state of being famous for something bad. → He gained notoriety for his wild behaviour on tour.

Go down a lighter path (idiom) – to choose a more positive or less destructive course of action. → Instead of getting into trouble, she decided to go down a lighter path and use her fame for good.

Wind up (phrasal verb) – to end up in a particular place or situation. → Ultimately, I think a lot of them wind up doing a bit of both.

The sky is the limit (idiom) – there is no limit to what can be achieved. → For young social media stars today, the sky is the limit.

Rise to stardom (phrase) – the process of becoming a famous performer. → Her rise to stardom was incredibly fast after her first hit single.

Pry into (phrasal verb) – to try to find out private facts about a person. → The paparazzi are always trying to pry into the private lives of celebrities.

Court injunction (noun phrase) – a legal order from a court that stops someone from doing something. → The actor took out a court injunction to prevent the newspaper from publishing the photos.

Anonymity (noun) – the state of being anonymous, where one's name is not known. → Celebrities sometimes wear disguises to maintain their anonymity in public.

Role model (noun) – a person looked to by others as an example to be imitated. → Athletes are often seen as role models for young people.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What are the advantages of being a famous child?

Rory: I suppose the most obvious is the access to money and power that can help them and their families stay out of poverty and go on to achieve things. They could also use it to help others or raise awareness of different things. Well, and just gain even more fame and fortune, I suppose, at the most basic level.

Maria: And what about the negative aspects?

Rory: Oh, wow. I mean, they're almost too many to count when you think about it, really. I mean, kids don't have the psychological defenses and maturity that adults do. So, it could really go to their heads and mess them up in a variety of ways. And you can kind of see that with the unsavory behavior and criminal convictions child stars rack up as they get older. They just can't handle it. Another obvious one would be the potential for mismanagement of all their affairs, like finances and education. If they were to get left to do it on their own, I doubt they would do well.

Maria: What can children do with their fame?

Rory: Aside from what I mentioned, I'm not sure really. They could gain all that notoriety and infamy or go down a lighter path of using their platform to help others and themselves. Ultimately, I think a lot of them wind up doing a bit of both, really.

Maria: What can today's children do to become famous?

Rory: I think the sky is pretty much the limit in that regard these days, isn't it? They do all sorts of things like become social media stars, lead political movements, and protest movements. Become model students and role models in general. Unfortunately, there's a darker side to that where they become involved with violence and other social ills, but I don't think that distinguishes them much from adults to be honest.

Maria: Do people become famous because of their talent?

Rory: Well, it certainly helps, doesn't it? But it's not the only thing. There's a great deal of luck and hard work involved. I doubt some of the famous social media child stars of today would have had the same rise to stardom twenty years ago when social media was in its in infancy.

Maria: What are some of the potential negative impacts of celebrity culture on young people?

Rory: That's a good question. Because on the one hand, maybe, there's, these people occupy a position of power and influence potentially. So they could make them behave in particularly bad ways if they try to copy them. However, it's not like young people are mindless puppets. So it might not be such a strong impact, now I think about it. That's the one that stands out the most. Maybe another impact might be influencing them to buy things that they can't necessarily afford and put undue pressure on their parents, but again, it's not like kids are mindless automatons here, they have their own faculties, they can make decisions by themselves as well.

Maria: What can celebrities do to protect their privacy?

Rory: Lots of different things. I think most famously, they've taken out things like court injunctions, which is a legal way to stop people from prying into their affairs. They also have these large estates as well that they live on to kind of give them some space away from the public at large and the paparazzi that follow them around. And when they go out in public, there might be a degree of anonymity to what they're doing too, they might not draw attention to themselves just so that people aren't focused on them the whole time.