Review: Starstruck: When A Fan Gets Close to Fame by Michael Joseph Gross
During the Michael Jackson child molestation trial, most news media (including Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) presented the fans congregated on a daily basis in the parking lot with a constant “look at the freaks” veneer.

It’s difficult to analyze fans, fandom and fan culture as a fan, or so far removed from it that fans are viewed with a smirking sense of irony and amusement. Is it possible to understand fan culture from both the inside and the outside? And furthermore, can it be written about it in a way that is both intelligent and accessible?

In Starstruck: When a Fan Gets Close to Fame (Bloomsbury), author Michael Joseph Gross brings his unique perspective to fandom. He’s been a fan (a teenage autograph collector, amassing thousands of signatures), a journalist, sometimes mistaken for actor Sean Hayes of the show Will and Grace, and a friend of celebrities (he became close to Sean Astin while working on this book). Equipped with this varied dossier, Gross looks at fans, fandom, and celebrity worship from interesting P.O.V.s.

For example, not only does Gross interview for-profit autograph collectors (a group of people who seem almost annoying and parasitic as photographers), he attends the “Hollywood Collectors Show” at the Ramada Inn, where washed up actors sit at booths all day and charge $10 a piece for autographed headshots. These shows are veritable parades of “What ever happened to…”, featuring lineups such as Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), random surviving Munchkins (The Wizard of Oz), and Karen Lynn Gorney (Saturday Night Fever).

He visits the Michael Jackson parking lot (in the pre-trial days), and talks to fans who have worked themselves into MJ’s inner sanctum, including access to Neverland. More interesting are the Dolly Parton fans, such as the gay couple whose entire 1400 square foot home is packed with Dolly memorabilia, and donated $2000 to have a “personal audience” with Dolly. Gross relates an especially moving story about Parton’s song “I Am Ready” with the recent death of his mother. When an interview with Parton is cancelled, he is first angry because he won’t be able to relate this story to her. After some thought, he concludes:

“I didn’t need to tell Dolly that story – didn’t even want to tell Dolly that story – because the story was mine. The act of reaching out and reading to Mom had been mine, and Dolly did not deserve credit for the understanding I had come to. Dolly sang a song. Then I did something with that song. She made art. I took art and made it into love. I’d been on the verge of using that story as a chit for trade, to get an extra ten minutes of time with Dolly Parton, and I didn’t want to use it that way, because it was worth more than that – more than a hit of false intimacy with a star.”

The remainder of Starstruck covers starfucking (my term, not his) with Mary Hart and publicists, the algebra involved in canceling on friends when you have a chance to have lunch with Uma Thurman, and “people storms” celebrities find themselves caught in. There’s also a weird drunken night with Mickey Rourke in Park City, well before his “rebirth” in Sin City. Finally, Gross talks to celebrities about their own “starstuckness,” such as Debra Messing’s awe of Dustin Hoffman.

Starstuck is critical without being pretentious, admiring without being fawning, and accessible without being too immersed in fan culture. Using examples from his life as well as the industry, Gross examines fandom from both sides. While not as in depth as a book focusing on one specific fan culture (e.g. Deadheads, Trekkers or other science fiction fans), it provides a solid overview of the complexity of celebrity from fans, celebrities, and those who help create both of them.

Starstruck: When A Fan Gets Close to Fame by Michael Joseph Gross, Bloomsbury
- posted by Synd-e @ 10:37 PM