Celebrities Without Makeup

Chapter 1 of Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009) is an extensive critique of what he calls "celebrity culture." Citing authors like Daniel Boorstin, Neil Gabler, James Bradley, and C. Wright Mills, Hegdes argues that celebrity culture is a exemplified in media exaltations of superficiality, cosmetic surgery, New Age spirituality mysticism, pop psychology, motivational speakers, success gospel evangelism, and TV shows like American Idol and The Swan. Hedges criticizes the "moral nihilism" inherent in celebrity culture, in which human beings become commodities while those who possess true power — corporations and the oligarchic elite — are veiled and rendered invisible.
• Famous for being famous
Famous for being famous, in popular culture terminology, refers to someone who attains celebrity status for no particular identifiable reason, or who achieves fame through association with a celebrity. The term is a pejorative, suggesting that the individual has no particular talents or abilities. Even when their fame arises from a particular talent or action on their part, the term will sometimes still apply if their fame is perceived as disproportionate to what they earned through their own talent or work.
The term originates from an analysis of the media dominated world called The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America (1961), by historian and social theorist Daniel J. Boorstin. In it, he defined the celebrity as "a person who is known for his well-knownness". Neal Gabler more recently refined the definition of celebrity to distinguish those who have gained recognition for having done virtually nothing of significance. He goes on to define the celebrity as “human entertainment,” by which he means a person who provides entertainment by the very process of living.