In an overentertained, overmediated society, mainstream culture becomes more and more a secondhand experience. We are less influenced by books, movies, CDs and plays than by what we hear about them through the media.

This dichotomy — between the buzz culture and the culture we actually consume — also created two kinds of celebrities: those we wanted to see on the screen or hear on the radio and those we just wanted to read about in Us or PEOPLE. Whereas 2002 gave us famous has-beens, 2003 was the year of famous never-weres.