look into an area that must be included when examining the rise andfall of the counterculture.

Mathew J. BartkowiakUniversity of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County

Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America’s FavoriteAddiction. Jake Halpern. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

Reading Jake Halpern’s book is like watching an episode of Behindthe Music, the popular series airing on the VH1 cable channel. Theshow’s narrative is probably familiar to most of us: young persondreams of stardom, is coddled and praised by loved ones, is convincedhometown life is boring and holds no promise, and travels toHollywood to become a star. The journey often turns treacherous,thanks to the perks and temptations that come with even moderatesuccess—most notably sex, drugs, and alcohol. The once innocentyoung person hits rock bottom, only to be saved by a co-star or bandmate, or, very often, by a well-timed encounter with God.

The people interviewed by Halpern for his study of our purportedlyworsening addiction to fame commit to memory, then eat, sleep, andbreathe the narrative endorsed by Behind the Music and the countlessother celebrity-related media vehicles, but always fall short of trulymaking it. They end up taking classes at Personal Best, a Buffalo,New York-based modeling and talent school run by a formerbeauty queen and television meteorologist, making annual pilgrimagesto the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA)convention, following singer Rod Stewart from concert to concert,taking up residence at Oakwood, a gated community in California forfamilies of individuals wanting to break into show business, ordropping their jobs to take classes hoping to become a celebrity’spersonal assistant.

The ‘‘greatest hits’’ reflected in the pages of People are all there: wewant to be close to celebrities; we want to ‘‘bask in their reflectedglory,’’ as psychology professor Robert Cialdini concluded in the1970s; we are lonely, disaffected, disconnected; our teenagers have beencoddled and told they are wonderful, resulting in a wave of adolescentegotism that is sweeping the nation.

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But are these new developments? Halpern explains that where oncewe only had a few magazines from which to glean our celebrityinformation, we now are inundated with it. Our newspapers wouldrather tell us about Paris Hilton’s unfortunate incarceration than aboutthe nation’s economy or our struggling schools. We would rather readabout Paris than outsourcing or voucher programs. We would rather befamous than Secretary of State.

Troubling, but still not new. Halpern’s main claim—that we areaddicted to fame—is not proven by interviews with a handful of peoplecarefully chosen for the zeal with which they pursue their dreams offame interspersed with eloquent, but brief, explanations of research,like Cialdini’s, that cry out for proper contextualization.

A more pressing issue, but not explored by Halpern, is that societysits by as the people interviewed by Halpern, and thousands like them,squander their lives. Owners of modeling agencies, talent agents, andassorted hangers-on are like coaches who tell kids from impoverishedneighborhoods that immersing themselves in the sport—and noteducation—is a sure-fire ticket out of their hardscrabble surroundings.

Perhaps more troubling is that Halpern’s journey sustains, but doesnot help us understand, the dominant narrative of fame discussedearlier—even Robert Thompson, the well-known professor of popularculture from Syracuse University, sits in his own on-campus televisionstudio, ready to dish out academic-sounding but digestible sound-bitesabout our love of celebrity.

On the book jacket, Halpern asks, ‘‘Why do down-to-earth, educatedpeople find stories about Paris Hilton’s dating life so irresistible?’’ Fewerdo than Halpern’s premise suggests. But such an assertion would not fitwith the narrative of fame deployed by the media to keep us interested infame, those who seek it, and especially those who have it.

Ronald BishopDrexel University

Undressed for Success: Beauty Contestants and Exotic Dancers asMerchants of Morality. Brenda Foley. New York: PalgraveMacmillan, 2005.

When Brenda Foley analyzes host Tony Danza’s behavior during the2001 Miss America pageant, she exposes the trumped-up division

164 Book Reviews