Since the beginning of Hollywood’s star system, the extra-textual exploits of celebrities have been fodder for gossip columns and tabloid journalism. American culture’s ongoing fascination with celebrity is evident in the sheer amount of media devoted to celebrity culture. While stories of “Judy Garland’s drunken breakdowns” (Dyer and MacDonald, 1988, p. 61) promised a source of privileged access to celebrity during Hollywood’s golden age, contemporary audiences demand ever more intimate access to the private lives of celebrities (Dyer and MacDonald, 1988; Nunn & Biressi, 2010) including their struggles with substance abuse. Therefore, it is perhaps unsurprising that celebrity addiction would eventually become a subject of reality television. The following analysis argues that while addiction was not the primary focus of The Osbournes (2002-2005), The Anna Nicole Show (2002-2004), Being Bobby Brown (2005), and Hey Paula! (2007), these programs cast known or reputed addicts in order to capitalize on voyeuristic interest in the illicit consumption habits of these celebrities. Consequently, this group of celebrity reality programs not only served as an “incitement to discourse” (Foucault, 1978) about addiction in the discursive field of reality television, but also establish addiction-related programming as a viable commodity for the television industry. This paper looks at these programs as important precursors to the phenomenon of recovery television, a subgenre of programs about addiction which includes Intervention (2005-2013) and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (2008-2012).
About the presenterBrian L. MacAuley
Brian MacAuley received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1999, his M.A. from Suffolk University in 2009, and his Ph.D. from the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University in 2014. His dissertation, “Discourses of Sobriety: Addiction, Consumption and Recovery Television” is a discursive genealogy of recent television programs about addiction.