From $10,000 tweets to making money in the afterlife, a recovering
gossip columnist explores the business lessons that power the Hollywood
Industrial Complex
Why do celebrities get paid so much more than regular people to do a
job that seems to afford them the same amount of leisure time as most
retirees? What do Bush-era economics have to do with the rise of Kim
Kardashian? How do the laws of supply and demand explain why the stars
of Teen Mom are on the cover of Us Weekly? And how was the sale of
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's baby pictures a little like a street drug
deal? After a decade spent toiling as an entertainment journalist and
gossip columnist, Jo Piazza asks the hard questions about the business
behind celebrity. Make no mistake: Celebrity is an industry. Never in
the course of human history has the market for celebrities been as
saturated as it is today. Nearly every day most Americans will consume
something a celebrity is selling--a fragrance, a sneaker, a song, a
movie, a show, a tweet, or a photo in a magazine. With the benefits of
Piazza's unique access to the celebrity market, Celebrity, Inc.
explains in detail what generates cash for the industry and what drains
value faster than a starlet downs champagne--in twelve fascinating case
studies that tackle celebrities the way industry analysts would dissect
any consumer brand.
