Hollywood stars have lost their shine

Reading the lip-smacking reports of the latest troubled celebrity relationships  (Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux definitely high and dry, Cheryl Cole and Liam Payne allegedly on the rocks) I couldn’t help musing that stars – and more specifically, the place they occupy in our mass psychological landscape – have very much changed since the first mass-market celebrities emerged. The film stars of the fledgling Hollywood truly were worshipped as higher beings; a tribe of Pathan Indians opened fire on a cinema when they were denied entry to a Greta Garbo film while women committed suicide when Valentino died. Their marriages were regarded as heavenly unions; their romantic sunderings as tragedies. These days, though, there’s a tangible sense of glee when a celeb’s private life crashes and burns; in short, they have moved from dais to doghouse.

When entertainers espouse a political cause – as they did with Hillary Clinton and Remain – it seems that more ‘civilians’ (to use Elizabeth Hurley’s risibly inaccurate phrase; surely ‘punter’ is nearer the mark) turn against it than support it.