The fame machine

摘要

Fascination is universal for what Aaron Spelling, a prolific producer of American soap operas, once called "rich people having problems that money can't solve". But the fascinated in star-struck Britain have no equal. The country has a profusion of titles devoted to chronicling even the smallest doings of celebrities. Britons buy almost half as many celebrity magazines as Americans do, despite having a population that is only one-fifth the size. Celebrity news often makes the front page of British tabloid newspapers, providing a formidable distribution channel for stories about celebrity sex, drugs and parenthood. New figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation show that the ten bestselling celebrity publications and ten most popular tabloids have a combined circulation of 23m.