In Rod we trust:
Jake Halpern explores America’s fame obsession
By Christopher Schobert
 |
The book came out of his interest in why Americans are so desperate for fame, and Halpern says his Buffalo roots had a tangible effect on this search. “At first I felt very unqualified to write a book on fame. Growing up in Buffalo, I always saw myself as a rust belt kind of guy with only a very vague sense of how Hollywood worked,” he says. “But ultimately, being from Buffalo gave me a kind of clear-eyed view of things. It’s a place inhabited by down-to-earth, grounded people. And I think this made me less impressed and less romantic about the pretensions of Hollywood. I tried to look for the hidden and often ugly truths of celebrity obsession, and being from Buffalo helped me with this.”
The first chapter of Fame Junkies actually takes place in the Queen City, focusing on a “hub for would-be stars,” as Halpern describes it, named Personal Best. The circumstances that led to Buffalo’s featured role in the book came as a surprise to its author. “In the back of my mind, I think that I wanted to begin my book in Buffalo and then somehow jump out to Hollywood, but I had no idea how I was going to do this. Then I stumbled upon the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue,” says Halpern. Here, alongside models hailing from such diverse locales as Brazil, Nigeria, and Argentina, Halpern spotted a Buffalo native named Jessica White. “I was surprised for several reasons,” he writes, “starting with the fact that I couldn’t recall a single memory of a woman in a string bikini during my eighteen years of growing up in Buffalo.” He did a little investigating and found that White began by looking through the Yellow Pages for modeling schools, and was signed to IMG Models in New York City less than a year later.
“I was intrigued,” says Halpern. “It turned out that she went to a school called Personal Best on Harlem Road in Cheektowaga. The minute I learned about that I immediately went there, and this was my porthole into Hollywood.” In California, Halpern attended a modeling convention featuring thousands of young adults, all desperate for their American Idol--esque breakthrough. (Isn’t one Kellie Pickler enough?) The event, Halpern writes, was made up of girls ages five to sixteen, “dressed in strikingly adult fashion: miniskirts, butt-hugging shorts, low-cut camisoles, string-bikini tops, high heels, heavy makeup, and jewelry galore. Many of them looked as if they could be featured on the cover of a kids’ edition of Maxim or Playboy, if there were such a thing.” (Just wait.)
One of the most memorable chapters in Fame Junkies, and Halpern’s personal favorite, focuses on Marcy Braunstein, a Rod Stewart obsessive. “Braunstein is the biggest Stewart fan of all time,” says Halpern. “What I loved about her story was how self-aware she was. She knew that her obsession with Rod was kind of hijacking her life, but she just couldn’t tear herself away. There was something really poignant about Marcy’s story. She was so incredibly honest and introspective, and it brought this otherwise superficial story to life.”
As Halpern finds, such celebrity mania has become an American standard. Tabloids and near-tabloids, such as US Weekly and In Touch Weekly, have skyrocketed in popularity, while surfing star-obsessed Internet blogs has also become a national pastime. When Halpern spends time at the editorial offices of US Weekly, he finds that, according to the magazine’s editors, the secret to their success is in its portrayal of celebrities as friendly, neighborly types of people. “The magazine does this best in its ‘Stars—They’re Just Like Us!’ section,” says Halpern. “And most US Weekly articles are infused with a decidedly casual and friendly tone. This may be the real power behind US Weekly: It offers the illusion of friendship. I think this formula is the future of tabloid journalism.”
Halpern doesn’t see the country’s celebrity obsession as starting to wane anytime soon, and that carries with it some troubling fears. “The media have expanded at such a rate that we cannot escape celebrity images and stories—at the airport, in the grocery checkout lane, on TV, even in your refrigerator—there are celebs staring back at you. Also, it now seems easier than ever to become famous. It used to take years to make a name for yourself. Now, we can do it in an hour on YouTube. All of this makes fame all the more tempting, tangible, and alluring.”
Halpern, who is next planning a children’s book, will be discussing Fame Junkies at 7 p.m. on January 11 at Talking Leaves on Main Street. It’s worth nothing that Halpern doesn’t consider himself innocent of celebrity fixation. “To some extent I am definitely a fame junkie,” he says. “I’ll be walking through the airport, hustling toward my gate, and the next thing I know I’m standing beneath a television set, watching a segment on Julia Roberts’s children. And as I’m absorbing every last word of this pap, somewhere in the back of my head, the faintest of voices is asking, ‘Why on earth do you care?’ I think the important thing is that we always ask that question.”
Christopher Schobert’s celebrity obsessions include Flavor Flav, Gary Busey, and America’s golden couple, Ernest and Tova Borgnine.
Back to the Table of Contents
Back to Top