Stealing fame: lifestyle celebrity and the dubious cultural politics of Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring

ABSTRACT

In this essay, I theorize the lifestyle celebrity as a figure whose fame is premised on their aspirational status. I offer lifestyle celebrity as a complementary analytic to ordinary celebrity that allows for more precise distinction between celebrity figures. I engage Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring as a film that positions the desire for lifestyle celebrity as dangerous and irresponsible. I argue that the film places the burden of maintaining a “healthy” relationship with celebrity culture entirely on consumer-participants and affirms the class and gender performance hierarchies that structure the valuation and distribution of lifestyle celebrity.