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Age of Celebrity: Eternity Abandoned for Fleeting Immortality

by Wilfred Hahn Every year Forbes publishes its list of the Top 100 celebrities. The magazine's 2011 tally of America's top celebrities provided the most recent snapshot of this ever-changing world of fame and fortune. No doubt, some of these people would be recognizable to readers. The latest Top-100 contenders collectively earned $4.5 billion in 2010 (an average of $45 million each). Some of them were newcomers to the list, such as Justin Bieber, the young 17-year-old heartthrob crooner who ranked 3rd [place]. Others are long-time entertainers such as Oprah Winfrey (ranked #2, who is estimated to have earned $290 million in 2010 and has a reputed [total] net worth of over $3 billion). There can be no doubt: Celebrity is big business. A recent book, written by Jo Piazza (a former gossip columnist with the liberal New York Times ) entitled Celebrity, Inc.: How Famous People Make Money examines how competitive and facile is this world of celebrity. Quoting her on what she