📘 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.

Discussion

Maria: Right, dear listeners. So we are talking about celebrities, famous people, icons, pop idols, and fame. So being famous, fame.

Rory: Pop icons like who?

Maria: Pop icons like Paul McCartney, of course. Right, dear listeners, so fame. Yeah, there are advantages and disadvantages to being famous or to fame. And questions could be about children. So when we have a famous child, this child, a celebrity child, has access to money and power. Okay. So his family or her family stay out of poverty. So they're not poor. And they can help others and a child earns a fortune. So a lot of money is a fortune.

Rory: And they get fame and fortune,

Maria: which is a binomial. They get fame and fortune. Some negative aspects, or like, yeah, drawbacks, disadvantages involve psychological issues. So kids, children are not ready to be famous. So they are not mature enough. Mature like they are not adults. So, fame could mess children up. Fame could kind of destroy them.

Rory: Or psychologically damage them.

Maria: And a child can get involved in criminal behavior. and there is the potential for mismanagement.

Rory: Yes.

Maria: Mismanagement, so children can't manage their education, their finances if they are on their own, if they are alone. Notoriety. And the adjective is notorious, so to be notorious, to be famous for some bad things, notoriety, the state of being famous for something bad. Like he gained notoriety for...

Rory: for smashing up hotel rooms. That's what all the rock stars do.

Maria: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, children can gain notoriety, or they can go down a lighter path. So actually do something useful with their fame. So go down a lighter path. So they can either kind of fail it or choose a lighter path without any crimes and rock and roll. And, you can say like ultimately, finally, I think famous children wind up doing a bit of both. So they end up being notorious for using drugs, for example, and then choosing to do good.

Rory: That really is my favorite phrasal verb, isn't it?

Maria: It is. Wind up doing something, end up doing something. Today, children can do different things to become famous or to become celebrities. They use social media, so they become social media stars. They lead political movements, or children. Oh yeah, okay, this Greta girl.

Rory: I did think, yeah, Greta Thunberg was the one that stood out. I don't know if that's a political movement or an environmental one.

Maria: Okay, but environment is kind of connected.

Rory: She's a, she's an adult now, I think, at least legally, I think. But at the time she was a child when she started.

Maria: Oh, what's her name? Greta what?

Rory: Greta Thunberg. But there are others. Malala Yousafzai was a, children's rights, I suppose, advocate is the best word.

Maria: Oh yeah, okay, she started the school strike for climate in 2018 and she skipped school to do that. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, from Sweden and now yeah, she gained global attention at the age of 15. Okay? Now she's 23. So, an adult. Now there you go. You see dear listeners, so you can say like, okay, children can start campaigning, can start environmental campaign. For example, Greta Thunberg from Sweden who started the school strike for climate movement in 2018 and she kind of she started the Greta effect, because everybody went nuts like, oh environment, ah, you know. So, yeah, she got a lot of attention from all over the world. So that's a good example that you can either use in your essays and also in speaking part three. There you go. What can children do to become famous? And you say a lot of things. So you can say the sky is pretty much the limit. So, which means that a lot of things, there's no limit. Like, what can people do to become famous? The sky is the limit. This means there is no limit. They become model, like role models, they become influencers.

Rory: Role models has to be a collocation that's quite high level, surely.

Maria: Yeah, a role model. Yeah. And a role model is C1. A person who someone admires. usually like a famous person. So sport stars are role models for children. For example, Usain Bolt is a role model for lots of children, also Messi is a role model for lots of children all over the world who want to play football. So people admire them. Uh people admire him and want to kind of copy his success. A person's talent is not the only thing that makes people famous. There's also a great deal of luck, a great deal of, a lot of luck and hard work. So luck and hard work plus talent helps people to become famous.

Rory: Maybe. It's got to be like a unique combination of these things, doesn't it?

Maria: And a nice phrase is rise to stardom. Rory, could you use it in a sentence, this rise to fame?

Rory: Oh, wow. Well, celebrities all have a rise to fame, don't they? Because they start small and then they get more and more famous as time goes by.

Maria: Some questions could be about celebrity culture. And Rory, what is celebrity culture? how how do you understand it?

Rory: Just people following different celebrities, different aspects of their lives. It's not directly connected to their work that's gets, that gets produced. Though that's part of it. So it could be like who they are dating for example, or what's going on with their personal lives.

Maria: So it's pretty much like when people follow celebrities, they follow their personal lives and everybody in the whole world just follows what a person is doing, the life, like celebrity culture.

Rory: It's like a parasocial relationship. You feel close to the celebrity even though they are not close to you emotionally speaking that is.

Maria: Okay, could you give us an example?

Rory: Well, like people following what's happening in Taylor Swift's personal life is an example of celebrity culture.

Maria: And you can say that on the one hand, it's something bad, but on the other hand, it's not that bad.

Rory: Well, it's bad if it gets out of hand.

Maria: But if it's under control, it's fine. Why not? People can follow celebrities but should not...

Rory: Stalk them.

Maria: Yeah, no stalking.

Rory: Stalking is a crime.

Maria: And we talk about paparazzi. This is a specific word. Paparazzi follow celebrities. Okay, everywhere. Photographers who follow famous people. Paparazzi. And that's plural. A lot of paparazzi.

Rory: Like the Lady Gaga song.

Maria: And people pry into famous people's affairs. Affairs like a business life. Pry into means that they kind of spy on people. How do you spell pry?

Rory: P R Y.

Maria: Pry into. Yeah, like try to find out private facts about a person. So, a reporter was paid to pry into their personal lives. Right, so that's why famous people want to stay away from prying eyes, from people who pry into their affairs. And they buy large estates. Estates like mansions, like huge houses. to be inside, so like people can't go in. Estate. a large area of land with a house. And they prefer anonymity. So to be anonymous.

Rory: Not to be known, they hide themselves.

Maria: Yeah, they don't give their real name. So anonymity is important for them. So they like it when their anonymity is guaranteed when they go to some events, for example. Right, dear listeners. How are you doing? Are you okay? Lovely. Stay with us. Thank you very much for listening. Sending love and joy and hugs and band nine vocabulary. And we'll get back to you in our next episode.

Rory: Bye.

Maria: Bye.