Experiencing Fame - Part 2

The experience of being famous is something for which no one is prepared. It is a world described as bizarre, surreal, scary, lonely, creepy, daunting, embarrassing, confusing, and invasive. The celebrity life is also described as providing flattery, warmth, ego gratification, adoration, unlimited access, enormous wealth, and membership in an exclusive club in which one is surrounded by other famous people.

Loss of privacy and Entitization:

Many celebrities reported finding themselves ill-equipped for and struggling with the deluge of attention that comes with fame.

The swell of people, the requests, the letters, the e-mails, the greetings on the street, the people in cars, the honking of the horns, the screaming of your name. A whole world comes to you that you have no idea is there. It just comes from nowhere. And it starts to build and build like a small tornado, and it’s coming at you, and coming at you, and by the time it gets to you, it’s huge and can sweep you off your feet and take you away and put you in a world that has no reality whatsoever because all the people are judging you on what you do for a living, not for who you are.

- D. Rockwell, D. C. Giles