Paul McDonald - Hollywood Stardom

This edition first published 2013

2013 Paul McDonald

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McDonald, Paul, 1963

Hollywood stardom / Paul McDonald.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-7982-9 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-4051-7983-6 (paperback) 1. Motion picture industryUnited States. 2. Motion picture actors and actressesUnited States. 3. FameSocial aspectsUnited States. I. Title.

PN1993.5.U6M314 2013

384'.80973dc23

2012036171

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Figures

Legendary stardom and the tourism business. Ingrid Bergman, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, 17 November 2011.

The Audrey Hepburn industry. Star merchandise at the Deutsche Kinemathek Museum fr Film und Frensehen, Berlin, 5 September 2010.

The star brand system.

Harris poll of Americas favorite movie star: rankings of selected names in the top ten, 19932009.

Star city: clustering of the major studios, sindies and providers of services to stars.

Tom Cruise at the box office, 19902009.

Tom Hanks at the box office, 19902009.

Harrison Ford at the box office, 19902009.

Julia Roberts at the box office, 19902009.

Jim Carrey at the box office, 19942009.

Julia Roberts international box office for selected hits, 19902000.

Extravagant star entrance: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Cruise/Hunt hangs on: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Cruise/Hunt takes a message: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Cruise and shades: Risky Business .

Cruise/Hunt accepts his mission: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Subdued star entrance: A Few Good Men .

Cruise/Hunt looks: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Newton/Nordoff-Hall is looked at: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Elements of the star performance.

Cruise smiles: Top Gun .

Cruise smiles: The Color of Money .

Cruise smiles: Cocktail .

Cruise smiles: Rain Man .

Cruise smiles: Austin Powers in Goldmember .

Cruise/Hunt laughs at danger: Mission: Impossible 2 .

Bourdieus field of cultural production.

Best Actor nominees and winners: gross box office, 19942009.

Best Actress nominees and winners: gross box office, 19942009.

Best Actor nominees and winners: box office (%) by award phase, 19942009.

Best Actress nominees and winners: box office (%) by award phase, 19942009.

There Will Be Blood : box office and release pattern.

Roberts/Carpenter smiles: Runaway Bride .

Carpenter is Julia Roberts: Runaway Bride .

Roberts/Brockovich understands: Erin Brockovich .

Trashy woman: Erin Brockovich .

Tables

Quigley poll of the top ten money-making stars, 19902009.

The American Film Institutes greatest American screen legends.

James Cagney and Warner Bros.: main contract terms, 193049.

Stars, leading actors and agents, 2010.

Stars and sindies: selected names and companies.

Main features of vertically integrated vs. post-studio stardom.

Nielsen annual ratings for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air .

African-American actors on the Quigley poll, 19322009.

Will Smith and the studios: domestic and international box-office grosses by studio, 19952008.

Will Smith circles the world: Hancock in key international markets.

Global performance of the star act: main markets for Mission: Impossible 2 .

Daniel Day-Lewis: the grosses and the glory, 19922009.

Annual cycle of film-acting awards in the US.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, my love and thanks to Tamar, Jessica and Chloe the A-plus list! for sticking with me throughout the whole drama by which a book on stardom was born. Only with the belief and support of my outstanding commissioning editor Jayne Fargnoli was it possible for the book to become a reality, and Id like to express my gratitude to Ben Thatcher for steering the book through production. It is a key aim of the study which follows is to stake out some new conceptual ground by finding points of connection between two streams of thinking in film scholarship: star studies and industry studies. When making this connection, I was led by the scholarship of Richard Dyer and Janet Wasko. In the past I have had the pleasure of working with both Richard and Janet, and although neither was in anyway involved with the book I thank them for the continuing intellectual inspiration that their own work has given me and which set me on the road to embarking on a study like this in the first place. Research for the book was only possible because of the generous financial assistance I received. A Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust enabled me to take an extended period of research leave and a Small Grant from the British Academy facilitated research trips to Los Angeles. I am greatly indebted to Thomas Austin, Cynthia Baron, Christine Geraghty, Chris Holmlund and Peter Krmer for agreeing to provide references in support of applications for this funding. Resources at key research libraries have been essential to completing this study and for the assistance they provided I would particularly like to thank Sandra Archer at the Margaret Herrick Library, Jonathon Auxier and Sandra Joy Lee at the Warner Bros. Archive, and Sarah Currant and Sean Delaney at the British Film Institute National Library. Along the way Nicola Bertram, Emily Carmen, Eric Hoyt, Steve Neale, John Sedgwick, Deborah Shaw and Yannis Tzioumakis have all helped me considerably by providing information or sources, or otherwise reading sections of the manuscript. Finally, my thanks to Angela Wilson for her great work on preparing the map which appears in Chapter 4.