First Comes Love: Power Couples, Celebrity Kinship and Cultural Politics

Description

With the prominence of one-name couples (Brangelina, Kimye) and famous families (the Smiths, the Beckhams), it is becoming increasingly clear that celebrity is no longer an individual pursuit-if it ever was. Accordingly, First Comes Love explores celebrity kinship and the phenomenon of the power couple: those relationships where two stars come together and where their individual identities as celebrities become inseparable from their status as a famous twosome. Taken together, the chapters in this volume interrogate the ways these alliances are bound up in wider cultural debates about marriage, love, intimacy, family, parenthood, sexuality, and gender, in their particular historical contexts, from the 1920s to the present day. Interdisciplinary in scope, First Comes Love seeks to establish how celebrity relationships play particular roles in dramatizing, disrupting, and reconciling often-contradictory ideas about coupledom and kinship formations. Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction Notes Part One: Golden Couples Notes Chapter 1 ‘Gilbo-Garbage’ or ‘The Champion Lovemakers of Two Nations’: Uncoupling Greta Garbo and John Gilbert Venus meets the Doughboy ‘The champion lovemakers of two nations’ Mythic zenith Notes Chapter 2 ‘The Most Envied Couple in America in 1921’: Making the Social Register in the Scrapbooks of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald ‘Superior People – Who Aren’t’ “Look me up in the Social Register” (Scott Fitzgerald’s Notebooks) ‘The Rolling Junk’ Notes Chapter 3 ‘Good Fellowship’: Carole Lombard and Clark Gable Lightening the taboo for the ‘Hinterland’ Marriage and divorce in the Great Depression A cross-class screwball Gable, ‘Two Dimes, A Nickel and a Heart Without Fear’ A good fellowship Notes Part Two: Kinship Notes Chapter 4 Filial Coupling, the Incest Narrative and the O’Neals From the Generation Gap to gap kids The incest narrative and the O’Neals Notes Chapter 5 A Star is Born?: Rishi Kapoor and Dynastic Charisma in Hindi Cinema Indian film stardom The Kapoor khandan (family) Rishi Raj Kapoor (1952–) Rishi as a co-hero Other roles Rishi plays his star persona Acknowledgements Notes Chapter 6 Eddie Murphy’s Baby Mama Drama and Smith Family Values: The (Post-) Racial Familial Politics of Hollywood Celebrity Couples Eddie Murphy’s baby mama drama Smith family values Conclusion Notes Chapter 7 Momager of the Brides: Kris Jenner’s Management of Kardashian Romance Jenner as celebrity manager Khloé & Lamar’s ‘Unbreakable Bond’ Kim’s Fairytale Wedding Kimye Kourtney and Scott Kris and Bruce Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Part Three: Marriage Notes Chapter 8 Diana’s Rings: Fetishizing The Royal Couple Rebranding the royal couple The ring’s two bodies Notes Chapter 9 Behind Every Great Woman …?: Celebrity, Political Leadership and the Privileging of Marriage Celebrity and political women Fear of the unmarried female politician A ‘de facto’ Prime Minister An ‘Illegitimate’ partner?: Representing the ‘First Bloke’ The domesticated bloke Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Chapter 10 It’s the Thought That Counts: North Korea’s Glocalization of the Celebrity Couple and the Mediated Politics of Reform Staging the social space: The pseudo-event Let them wear Christian Dior trousers Songbun and the celebrity background check The limits of the celebrity couple in North Korea Acknowledgements Notes Chapter 11 Ellen and Portia’s Wedding: The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage and Celesbianism Individual rights and marriage history The neoliberal logic of marriage Same-sex marriage and homonormativity Ellen and the spectacle of lesbian celebrity coupledom Ellen and Portia’s postfeminist ‘celesbian’ wedding Neoliberal ethics of self-care within marriage The politics of the celesbian couple Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Chapter 12 Audrey Hollander and Otto Bauer: The Perfect (Pornographic) Marriage? Presenting the perfect (pornographic) marriage Performing the celebrity couple Consuming Audrey and Otto Conclusion Notes Part Four: Love Notes Chapter 13 The Return of Liz and Dick From studio darling to celebrity ‘nightmare’ The dawn of paparazzi and the new tabloid system Conclusion: Burton and Taylor as celebrity origin text Notes Chapter 14 ‘Brad & Angelina: And Now ... Brangelina!’: A Sociocultural Analysis of Blended Celebrity Couple Names The history of celebrity couple name blending The effects of blended names on identity and public perception The evolution of Brangelina: Meanings and uses Where are Pellen, Mennifer and Jayoncé?: The marginalization of celebrity couples of colour and LGBTQ celebrity couples Conclusion Document Appendix Notes Chapter 15 Jane Fonda, Power Nuptials and the Project of Ageing He said/she said: Vadim and Hayden through the celebrity autobiography Fun with Ted and Jane: Competitive celebrity in public and private Fonda’s project of ageing Acknowledgements Notes Chapter 16 The Making, Unmaking and Re-Making of Robsten Making Robsten Unmaking Robsten Re-making Robsten Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Chapter 17 The Good, the Bad and the Broken: Forms and Functions of Neoliberal Celebrity Relationships Fantasies of the future in the era of neoliberalism Fantasies as retrenchment The celebrity couple hierarchy The Beckhams and the fantasy of meritocracy ‘Anti-Couples’ and the tragic coupling of Oscar and Reeva Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Index