《Celebrity-in-Chief: How Show Business Took Over The White House》

Book Description Tells the colorful story of how the two most visible branches of American celebrity--the presidency and Hollywood--came together in a marriage of pop culture and politics. U.S. presidents and Hollywood have had a mutual admiration society that extends far back into history. In Celebrity-in-Chief, journalist Alan Schroeder contends that each camp has influenced the other--particularly over the past century--creating a president who no longer stands apart upon a remote civic pedestal, isolated from Hollywood and pop culture. Instead, the powerful forces of the American celebrity circus drag him into the tent and ask him to put on a show. The job of president has always been politically demanding, but now there is another requirement: to exude star quality. In the parlance of Hollywood, he must "fill the frame." Drawing upon a wealth of fascinating anecdotes about some of the most celebrated individuals in American history, Schroeder shows how a succession of presidents since Woodrow Wilson has put on a show with mixed results. Whether is was Bill Clinton apologizing to the nation for an adulterous affair or George W. Bush boasting of faithfulness to his wife, Celebrity-in-Chief entertainingly and convincingly shows that the result is a wholesale demystification of the office--and that this marriage of pop culture and the presidency will continue to fascinate and endure. From Publishers Weekly Modern American politics is slavishly dependent upon image, argues Schroeder, professor at Northeastern University's School of Journalism, and no branch more so than the executive. It's a state of affairs ripe for intermingling with the image-driven worlds of Hollywood and popular culture, he says. Schroeder exhaustively details his point, from descriptions of the awkward and stumbling early 20th-century attempts at cooperation between the political and entertainment worlds (he cites Woodrow Wilson and FDR for being particularly ill at ease with their celebrity associates), to what he casts as the equally stumbling and awkward early 21st-century efforts at cooperation characterized by the second Bush presidency (for Schroeder, George W. Bush displays discomfort before the camera). In between are a multitude of accounts of celebrities campaign stumping for politicians and politicians' wooing starlets, accompanied by insightful analyses of the ways in which Schroeder sees Hollywood and Washington both benefiting and courting disrepute with their "made for each other" dance of image and message. While veering at times into the tangential and picayune, Schroeder collects the most telling anecdotes from a century's worth of cultural cross-pollination. If Nixon had had a book like this one to consult before his disastrous televised debate with JFK in 1960, history might have taken a different shape. Photos. Book Dimension Height (cm) 22.9 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (cm) 15.2