As for the implications of such celebrity-icon statuses, these can only be related to reactions and feelings of admiration, interest and even worship. The one consequence to be taken most seriously is the active influence that role models like Angelina Jolie have on the personalities of young fans, on teenagers who see in Jolie an example to be followed. This is the point where responsibility and awareness have to kick in and force Hollywood stars (and not only them) such as Angelina Jolie, to behave in public as if all eyes were on them; because, (un)fortunately, in reality all eyes are on them, putting their lives and their actions under magnifying glass.
To the questions concerning what makes a person famous and how does a celebrity become a celebrity, the answer implied fascination, originality, self-confidence, intelligent self-management and a little bit of luck, to be in the right place, at the right time, meeting the right people. The answer to the question regarding who makes a celebrity an actual icon is much simpler: common individuals, also known as media consumers. Starting from here, it's not an error to say that the ones who make you a star, can also make you a celebrity-icon or just an Average Joe back again. So, what pleases the public, what impresses it is what contributes to the making of a symbol. Being famous became too little when Angelina Jolie hooked-up with another star figure, Brad Pitt. The merge of two of the biggest sex-symbols meant the creation of a mega-sex-symbol couple and a veritable obsession for paparazzi across the world. That contributed to Jolie's celebrity-icon status, making her one of the most desired woman in the world, because she was the lover of one of the sexiest men alive (according to various polls). The relationship between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt was not just a union between a young, beautiful and wealthy woman and a young, beautiful, wealthy man. It was the merge of two brands, of two celebrity-empires, the union of two great image-made capitals. The relationship is in fact the joint venture of two symbols, benefiting both parties. Even if, the actual reason behind their getting together is love, the Jolie-Pitt relation can't be looked at as just a common, ordinary romantic union. And that is because, in the world of celebrities, nothing they do is plain, common and ordinary, as much as they would want to, sometimes. Therefore, in her relationship with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie entered a celebrity and, due to it, became a celebrity-icon. Decided by whom? Decided by the teenage girls who sigh or sob their hear out when watching Brad Pitt in a movie or on TV, and who reached a new, considerably higher level of admiration for the one who managed to still their idol's heart. Decided also by the men who see Jolie playing characters like Lara Croft or Ms. Smith, sexually provocative women, able to set a teenager's or even an adult male's imagination on fire. Also, the ones who have a saying in this are the ones impressed by Jolie's active involvement in improving life conditions for children in Africa, and her wild-life dynamic support, by generous donations and mass media campaigns against any action that might endanger nature. Angelina's celebrity-icon status might also be decided by that segment of public who admire her action to adopt children from third world countries, thus saving them from poverty and offering them a better, more secure future. Looking at the big picture, Angelina Jolie is a fervent activist, involved in child-saving, nature-saving, people-saving actions, who plays foxy, appealing characters and dates one of the hottest sex symbols, to whom she commits to and starts a family with. She is also an Academy Award winner, with trade-mark lips and irresistible physic. The public is therefore being given all the right reasons to love and cherish Angelina Jolie, to worship her and define her as an undisputed celebrity-icon.
That means that girls will say that they want to be like Angelina Jolie when they grow up, that they want to have lips like Jolie and eyes like Jolie, that means that, when asked about their representation of a sexy, voluptuous woman, men will say: eyes, lips and a body like Angelina Jolie's, that means, in light of the previous saying, that women will resort to plastic surgery in order to have eyes and lips like Angelina Jolie's. All this...
The consequence is that he/she will be mostly admired for that in which he/she put the most effort in: the image, defined as physical appearance and behavioral features (conduct). The famous people, the stars, invest all their energy in their main tool of work: their appearance, their image, their studied conduct. In doing what they do best, they use their bodies, their faces, their gestures as instruments that help them express emotions and ideas. Celebrities are therefore recognized, loved and admired for their image, not as much for who their really are, as for who they can be, for they can do, for who the public wants them to be and do. The object of veneration is an illusion, a subjective representation of things and personalities. Celebrities are beloved as long as they stay perfect and out of the ordinary. They are the beautiful people that must be ready to perform at any time, in any place. This is also the case for Angelina Jolie. She became an ideal of beauty and feminine sexuality from the moment she started to truly entertain, from the second she entered the world of celebrities and she became publicly noticeable. The mass media promoted her image and the public transformed her from a beautiful woman into a celebrity-icon, setting the standards in beauty and fashion. Enhancing her popularity was her outrageous, sexually aggressive and sometimes scandalous behavior from her earlier age. Drawing the attention only helped her become more famous and made the public concentrate on every aspect related to her, thus discovering that she's a beautiful woman. But beautiful is not enough when you're a movie star. So, she gradually became a beauty symbol and a fashion icon. And that happened because the public wanted her like that, as it wants all movie and music stars to be beautiful and perfect, so it (the public) can enjoy the image that it projects on to them. The mass media consumer (he/she) transforms not so out of the ordinary talented, beautiful, witty individuals in stars and idols, and he/she does that by investing those individuals with all of his/her hopes and dreams, projecting all his/her fantasies on the faces of the chosen ones.
A question still remains: why Angelina Jolie and not Marie Curie? Why an entertainer and not a scientist or a writer? Why is a performer or an artist more suitable for gaining a celebrity-icon status than a thinker? Because entertainers and performers act on an emotional level, while scientists, writers and philosophers, though have more significant contributions to human civilization and culture, talk more for the mind and reason, and less for the soul. An entertainer is easier to understand and relate to, because he/she reaches the public through emotions (the powerful universal language of emotions), and thus easier to love and admire. Artistic manifestations can offer common people raw, vivid, intense experiences, for which they feel more grateful. Because those experiences are the ones that make them forget about everyday worries and have the ability to induce the feeling of enjoying life as it is. Because entertainers and performers are the ones who sell the dreams and fantasies we are always willing to buy.
As an entertainer, Angelina Jolie is a celebrity because of her ability to stand out from the crowd, to point out to everyone her individuality, to position herself on a suitable niche and because of her clever management of own personality. Jolie, as all famous figures, played her winning card right: originality and beauty. She is a celebrity because she knew how to show the world that is one of a kind, and that another can't do the same things as fascinating, as interesting and as special as she did/does. She is Angelina Jolie. The one and only Angelina Jolie.
Works Cited
Angelina Jolie." Who2. 2007. LLC. 13 Apr. 2007. http://www.who2.com/angelinajolie.html
Angelina Jolie Biography." Starpulse. 2007. All Media Guide LLC. 13 Apr. 2007. http://www.starpulse.com/Actresses/Jolie,_Angelina/Biography/
Celebrity." Wikipedia. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 13 Apr. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity
Davos Succumbs to Star Power." DW-World. 2007. Deutche Welle. 13 Apr. 2007. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1473433,00.html
