The magazine that brings you the best of the best, the richest of the rich and the worst of the worst is at it again and celebrities hogging the spotlight are under fire.
Pop star Britney Spears topped Forbes Magazine's list of the most overexposed celebrities. The magazine cites a study by Encino, Califo.-based E-Poll Market Research, which provides appeal rankings for more than 3,000 celebrities.
Forbes Magazine is best known for its list of the highest paid celebrities, most powerful celebrities, best places to live, worse places to live and other studies. The latest study showed 72 percent of the U.S. population would use the term "overexposed" to describe Spears this year. Among others who the American public appears to have not much use for anymore are Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Spears' ex-husband Kevin Federline, Tom Cruise and Michael Jackson.
The top 10 in order are #1 Spears, #2 Paris Hilton, #3 Kevin Federline, #4 Tom Cruise, #5 Nicole Richie, #6 Lindsay Lohan, #7 Michael Jackson, #8 Donald Trump, #9 Terrell Owens, #10 Howard K. Stern.
Spears actually increased her lead on the competition from five years ago, when 54 per cent thought she was overexposed at that time.
But following her very public fall from grace and head shaving antics, people now feel she's in their faces more than ever before. Even her recent comeback concerts at the House of Blues in San Diego were considered messy by media reports, who said Spears didn't bother to sing live.
"It's like the juggler's lament: The balls go where you throw them," publicist Stan Rosenfield, whose clients include George Clooney and Robert De Niro, told Forbes. "If you show up at places that are covered by the media, then they're going to cover you. And if you don't, they won't."
E-Poll Chief Executive Gerry Philpott told Forbes that a celebrity could go from "zero to 60 in exposure like that. And, for that matter, 60 to zero."
"For certain celebrities, it becomes almost a survival instinct," says US Weekly Editor-in-Chief Janice Min of that need for attention. "And after a period of time out of the press, there's sort of a hunger or craving to get back in."
Ellis Cashmore, author of Celebrity Culture, argues that staging a comeback is far easier for some than it is for others. The dividing point, he claims, is talent. And without it, he questions what the celebrity can come back with.
A star like Spears, on the other hand, can use her singing and dancing skills to win over fans, he says. What enabled the pop star to rise to fame initially will be the thing that can bring her back again.
In the meantime, Rosenfield offers this advice for Spears and her overexposed cohorts: "How can I miss you if you don't go away?" he says. "Just go away."
