The problems of being famous

Abstract

The fourteenth-century Florentine poet Petrarch would have sympathized with the plight of the modern celebrity as he travelled through Europe beset by ardent fans, forcing their poems upon him. Greta Garbo was among the first of the modern celebrities to revolt openly against the pressures of dealing with the general public, so much so that she spent many periods of her career ‘in hiding’, and even took to donning disguises to avoid recognition.¹ Needless to say, such attempts frequently ended in failure, with stories of her being chased around Central Park by the press and having to be smuggled into her hotel, and of reporters hiring hotel personnel as private detectives (a common occurrence today). ‘The story of my life is about back entrances and side doors and secret elevators and other ways of getting in and out of places so that people won’t bother you.’²