Adam Hanft: Paul Newman and the Vanished Modesty of Celebrity

"Celebrity" is a loaded concept today. "Celebrity culture" has become shorthand for everything we love to hate -- and hate to love -- about the sensationalist, exploitative, superficial contours of American life. When John McCain's strategists were looking for a kung-fu move that would turn Barack Obama's popularity and ability to energize massive crowds against him, they chose to frame him as a manufactured product of our celebrity culture, a political doppelganger of Britney Spears. It was a shrewdly calculated move. If there are some swing voters who worry that there's something about Obama that smacks too much of performance and self-love, the invidious comparison could be the tipping point. If there was ever an entertainer who could have become the Poster Boy of unmoored, culturally carnivorous celebrity it was Paul Newman, who died this weekend. He was gorgeous and the media swarm was thick and relentless. Yet he never lost his footing. He brought a modesty to celebrity that ... (link)