François Picard is pleased to welcome Ellis Cashmore, sociologist, professor and author of "Celebrity Culture". Cashmore argues that contemporary celebrity culture has fundamentally altered the relationship between entertainment and politics. There was a time when public figures retained the option of political neutrality. Whereas, today, even silence or refusal to engage can be interpreted as a political act.
He traces this shift historically, from the explicitly political counterculture of the 1960s, through an era in which commercially minded stars could distance themselves from contentious issues, to the social-media age, where audiences increasingly expect access not only to celebrities’ performances and private lives, but also to their political convictions.
