I KNOW IT WHEN I SEE IT!

“And, to further confuse things, there are degrees of celebrity; levels if you will. Perhaps it would help to think of celebrity as resembling Dante's circles of hell. Each smaller circle representing a more concentrated and potent form of celebrity. At the center, you might find Madonna and Tom Cruise, while Taylor Hicks and Tila Tequila orbit around them in more cacophonous, frivolous (and sinful) outer bands. As you can see from the chart, name recognition doesn't guarantee that you will be breathing the same rarefied air that keeps Brangelina fresh and relevant. No matter how badly Khloe Kardashian may want to be a star, she's still just bottom-of-the-barrel fodder for "Celebrity Apprentice."
So, though I may not be able to give you a textbook definition of celebrity, I think we can all agree on one thing: we know star power when we see it.”

-Washington Post
August 25 2008