‘Celebrities also suffer from the economic crisis’: Broke celebrities and neoliberal narratives from Spain’s Great Recession

ABSTRACT

During the years of the economic crisis, ‘broke celebrities’ attracted the attention of the Spanish media. The main aim of this paper is to analyse how these narratives of celebrities in bankruptcy fostered a neoliberal definition of the economic crisis and legitimised austerity policies. In these narratives, the crisis was represented as a social equaliser, affecting all social groups evenly; the causes of the crisis were individualised and celebrities were identified as the epitome of irresponsible citizens who have ‘lived beyond their means’; and citizens were encouraged to do ‘whatever it takes’ to find a job. Nevertheless, our paper also shows how audiences contested some of these values in online comments, challenging the narratives conveyed by Spanish media.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberalism
• austerity
• broke celebrities
• Great Recession
• schadenfreude

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Besides being a singer and actress, Lolita Flores is also the daughter of Lola Flores, a well-known flamenco singer and actress. She regularly appears in celebrity gossip media, including the high-end celebrity magazine ¡Hola!, that in Spain is a marker of legitimacy among celebrities (Gallego 1990).

2. The Gini index measures the income gap in the population, 0 meaning everyone has the same income and 1 meaning that one person has all the income.

3. The Palma index compares the income of the wealthiest 10% of the population with the income of the poorest 40%.

4. It is difficult to know the actual scale of inequality between stars and celebrities on the one hand and ordinary Spaniards on the other since no research into the economics of Spanish celebrity culture has been published to date, and celebrities’ monetary agreements are usually confidential. Moreover, there is a great deal of variability between the earnings and wealth of A-list celebrities (such as global film stars, singers and footballers) and D-List celebrities, such as former reality TV contestants. For example, the singer Julio Iglesias, the only celebrity on the list of the 350 wealthiest Spaniards, allegedly has a fortune of more than €900 million (El Mundo); a television personality such as Belén Esteban earned a wage of €780,000 in 2017 for working as a contributor in Sálvame (La Vanguardia 2018); and D-List celebrities made from €6,000 to €12,000 per week for appearing on the celebrity reality TV show Supervivientes (the Spanish version of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!) (El Mundo Deportivo 2018). In contrast, in 2016 the average salary in Spain was €23,156.34 per year (INE 2018).

5. Javier Mariscal became well-known in Spain for having designed Cobi, the mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

6. Loles León became well-known for appearing in several critically acclaimed films, such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios and Átame, Vicente Aranda’s Libertarias and Fernando Trueba’s La niña de tus ojos. She also had prominent roles in successful television series such as Aquí no hay quien viva (Antena 3, 2003–4).

7. ¡Qué tiempo tan feliz! (2009–2017) was a television programme hosted by María Teresa Campos and broadcast Sundays from 6 pm to 9 pm on Telecinco. The programme had a nostalgic feel and included interviews and features about songs and films from previous decades interspersed with interviews and performances by current singers and other celebrities.

8. Lucía Etxebarria is a well-known Spanish writer who has authored several top-selling books (Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas, Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes) and has won the most important Spanish literary prizes (Planeta, Nadal, Primavera).

9. Campamento de Verano was a celebrity reality TV show similar to I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! (2002-present). The programme featured D-List celebrities and was framed by the press as a low-quality programme (Oliva Forthcoming).

10. Ana Toro is a former Big Brother contestant who was interviewed on Sálvame Deluxe (01/11/2013) because she claimed that she had been out of work for two years and had no money left to feed her child.

11. Julián Contreras Jr. is the youngest son of Carmina Ordóñez, a late Spanish socialite. His status as a celebrity is twofold: on the one hand, he is featured regularly in the glossy high-end celebrity gossip magazine ¡Hola! (which, as stated in note 1, is a marker of celebrity status), while on the other, his fame is ‘ascribed’ and detached from legitimate definitions of talent and work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) [grant number: CSO2014-56830-P].

Notes on contributors

Mercè Oliva

Dr Mercè Oliva is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). Her research focuses on celebrity culture, class and gender studies, governmentality and reality TV. She has published articles in journals such as Convergence, Celebrity Studies, Social Semiotics, Games and Culture and Comunicar and she is the author of the book Telerrealidad, disciplina e identidad: los makeover shows en España [Reality TV, discipline and identity: makeover shows in Spain] (Ed. UOC, 2013).

Óliver Pérez-Latorre

Dr Óliver Pérez-Latorre is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). His research focuses on neoliberalism, game studies and the semiotics of new entertainment media. He has published articles in journals such as European Journal of Communication, Convergence, Social Semiotics and Games and Culture. He is the author of the book El lenguaje videolúdico: análisis de la significación del videojuego [The videoludic language: analysisis of video game’s meaning] (Laertes, 2012).