About his artifact . I dont know if i will painful. It as it was more like cleaning out the closet. What i wanted to do for the readers. The book is about the lifecycle of fame and what its like on the inside of the lifecycle and begins and levels off and then dissents and some people stay at the level area and others like myself dissent and what its like for my series on why the public acts the way it does in different points in the lifecycle and how to society get to this point where we put celebrity on such a high pedestal. A lot of people say you written a lot of painful or personal things because i use my own experience as a framework like a reporter would. To me its more just branching out. I seal these experiences as items you would put up for sale underground salt. Theyre not personal anymore. I have processed them and im done with them and they only serve as s a framework for the book. The book my experience is not unique, it is in many other people who have gone to the lifecycle and find a lot of commonality. Is fame addictive . I think what is more andictive then fame is the idea of it. Fame is something that a lot of people have an idea about and they have not necessarily live three or been anywhere near. Its also returned to toddlerhood if you had a happy toddler experience and other people pay your bills, everything you do is applauded. Taking care of the never have to worry about getting a ride were where you go to school and do not think about any of these things and your dork. Its a low bar of o accomplishment. In the same way people have an idea about fame that is similar to that. You get a lot of money, thats the idea. For not doing much and Everybody Loves you, everything you do is going to be awarded, other people schedulepl your travel, your handlers et cetera. And it is not what the experience is really like. Pieces may be true but 70 who is single who wants to believe that marriage is really wonderful they know a few things about somebodys merry couple life in the rest they took out. Because it does not meet or match the picture that they have of it. We talked to a lot of people in this book that you share your experience with. You think yours is a typical hollywood story in that sense about things . Yes, my experience is the same and are not unique to me, there are a lot of people i spoke to an a lot of things that we had a comment about the experience and when i was given the academic versions i say i abandoned the style. Which is one dream of consciousness. I did have them root together. There was a lot of comments had in common and i had them grouped together and plenty of the confirmation. Your book of fame thermometer . That is when you are among other famous people. Now youre being seen relative to them. Or relative to theirs. If youre in a room of people that have never done anything in the entertainment business youre the most famous person in the room. So what is being compared isnt the same. But when youre amongst other famous people that when its taken in the red carpet is one of the most sharpest that can be done. Give an example when your thermometer was at its highest. When one is very famous there is a lot of attention on that particular person. And it seems to confirm the public view that all the attributes they given to the same experience is true. They see that person getting a lot of attention and they read about the person getting a record deal or getting a lot of money to be in the film or something. And it seems that pursuit of that is with social media. So everybody seems to get on. You can try and generate large following relatively speaking. I think it isam really damagings us as a society for two reason. One is being constantly watched it fundamentally changes how you relate to yourself and how you relate to others because youre being watched and judged and you cant really measure a particle because once youre observing it changes its behavior and its Something Like that. Its like somebody watched from 16 to 39 and i think when People Volunteer for that and social being you was monitoring themselves and taking selfies and trying to maintain a particular whatever brand they decided on. That is very damaging and also the quantification of your value. It is not whether or not you took a good picture but how many likes did get. Or how many followers or subscribers and i recently talked to psychologists that specialize in teens and they say its really a fever pitche rigt now with the selfesteem being wrapped up like an entire day of somebodys mood for how they feel about themselves remotely wrapped up in whether or not enough likes and relative to someone elses likes and that sort of thing. So really went into quantification which is author, producer, actress or guestroom book to be feared than number are on the screen. The topic, famous liberty and what that means in america today. 2027. 8201 phone bac2027. 8201 phg you read about in your book. You did a guest on the moderate family at one point in about the same time you are graduating from ucla and computer science. And the attention that the two got was totally different. Yet it is interesting. People are very excited to hear that you have done something that has been on tv or in the theater but the quantification of millions of people watching and they want to get on a map. Due to sociology, millions of people were watching they too want to be parthi of watching ad they want to be excited and not looking if they really are excited about. Im doing a film this august and orbital behindthescenes, it is interesting. The most interesting reflections that i got from readers has been from those who say they related to this book. It was a blind woman that told me that she really related to the chapter that talks about being treated as not a person. She said when im out people treat me like im not a person because im wine. In another career military officer. Had recently highly decorated and retired and city really related to having to shift from being an environment where Everybody Knows is seems clear what your value is and the way the all the other people are relating to you and yet now hes in the civilian state where none of that is known about or is applied in high have to adjust your ego and i mean that in a good sense and your identity and everything in your head ability how do you relate to other people and how they relate to you. You have to do a complete shift on every think. One of the things that you pointed out that i thought was interesting the pregnant patient that will damage, when youre doing that 26 Million People were watching you that i dont think that made people were watching that now. It is funny. Back in the 80s and into the 90s yet very concentrated audiences with film and tv and frankly for music too. The concentrate hubs were listening yet to go to the record store and buy a record. In music went as a Digital Space earlier than the rest of it. But now theres so many different ways to consume mynt entertainment, he confined to an entire season of a show that he cumulatively has reached 26 Million People versus on average a show back then. Why did we care who you were . Anytime why do we care about this customer. Good question. You know theres certain series on any particular performer. I think the most genuine connection is your connection with the work theyve e done. In particular musicians. Music can lead into your life at a really important point. So then you ascribe without support. Most of my book is about a very strange excitement about being around anybody famous. You may not even necessarily like their work. But the way a fan or the public or anybody in the whole system shifts because in the present was somebody the other people find very famous. And who they know very famous. That is why i wrote why dont you look awful quality that walks into the room. If brad pitt walked by here. And everybody would change as well. A lot of people would digest themselves of their own identity when standing in front of himeym and not be themselves at all. And after words ask what happened to me. Why was acting like that. You seem to get lost . The thing about fame, i talk about imposed reality. Your real reality is how you truly see yourself and how you see others, where you live, what gender you are, your height, weight, what job, who your familygh members are in reality. If anyone of those were to change it can be very disruptive to somebodys life. And really traumatic probe. You try to hold how you feel about yourself. But sometimes it becomes inescapable to assess yourself the same way everyone elses. That is how we build reality we were young and get older and we learn what is acceptable in the society or not. People treat me this way when i act like this and treat me that way when act like that. So all adjust my behavior according to how i want to be treated. It does not happen in a vacuum. I dont believe you can discover who you are if you disguising your entire life. Can you become lost in it . Its more a matter if it becomes your reaty its like when you become lost in the idea if you live in los angeles then you live in less angels. People say i dont know evening, i just appear im not lost and is just reality. For fame is just a reality you try to manage and the more interesting thing is how you manage that. Now something has been jerked out of your reality in the same way your house burned down. Or your spouse died, or your parents got divorced. Its a big shift in reality that affects everything. That is what happens when fame is a very small sector of the population. And like a military officer when he retired and no longer had that reality to live in. Its an adjustment that not that many people are going to sympathize with or understand. But i think when people think of it in that way in the loss of reality in peoples lives in you have to adjust to and it affects your selfesteem and own identity i feel people the way i put in the book so people can relate to the shifting of reality and opposing of people telling you who you are. Lets hear from her college. Lets begin with dave who is calling from irvine, california about 40 miles from here. Hi my name is dave and it seems to me it is kind of like the celebrities and sharing a mask a golden magical mask that there are other people that carry the mask of you with them and when they see you in person they expect you to have that mask on only much more powerfully as opposed because th are meeting. We are going to leave it there because you write extensively about what he just said. Yeah, that is a great point. In the book i tk about they are spraying something on you. Theyre putting you in a cocoon and thats all they will look at. And your inside of famous person saying cant they see me, i am behaving, and being true to myself and behaving the way i am but theres almost a refusal and seen that. And they want to see often times they want to see themselves they do not want to be true that its a real person. And when a famous person does do everyday things is not just dismissed, photos taken of that and put in an entire section of the just like us as if its a crazy idea that somebody would eat a snack or go to the restroom or go to the Grocery Store or Something Like that. I think it is because in my book i talk about people wanting it to be true, that there is a golden ticket. And i feel like a lot of peoplel and makes their lives better to imagine that there is a way out of whatever it is theyre currentlexperiencing and for some people read is the idea of heaven and being whatever they want to think of it in their mind is not likely been there and came back and said this is what its like. But they want to see that mask. Thats very good observation. Two things from your book that relate to dave, you found yourself being very polite often in society and the public in the elevator story. Ties into a token of while youre standing in proximity to people and being spoken of as if you are not there, that happened a lot back then. Do see people having a conversation and listening to them . Its true because youre nott real. I think it is necessary that the public often see that is not real otherwise it shatters when youre talking about with a brought up, it shatters an idea that theres an existence possible while were still alive, you get to relive your toddlerhood. Those are paid for, everybody loved you et cetera. So i feel like a lot of people like to believe that is available. Anthony from california. I do not think anthony is with us so we are going to oklahoma. This is bob and hes calling from oklahoma. Caller hello, good to see you again im glad youre still working and writing. I just wanted to touch you mentioned humility and im noticing we live in a Society Today that is full of a yuppie class that has a a president tht is ahead of the home that has no humility, no capacity for humility. I see that a lot in my entire life and im about to turn 60. Ive seen a lot of things in my life and ive seen a lack of humility and this predisposed of what youre talking well and continuing the unreality. Lets let justine rip on that a little bit. Guest thank you bob. Personally i found that to be greatly true as well and its something i touch on in the book. I think he has a lot to do with reality show mentality and i believe everyone has skills and talents but whether or not they will develop the skills and talents and i think for a lot of reality shows, i think the culture has offered a large portion of our population and as part of an idea that you should get paid for just being there. You dont need to develop any skills or talent. And in fact, behaving badly, not having integrity or humility or being greedy, bossy, rude is going to be rewarded financially with finance and with attention and unfortunately that has been proved out. Its an unfortunate confirmati confirmation. You mentioned the political offices are maintained by those who are not behaving with integrity and humility. We have a lot of the reality show contestants behaving with an absence of integrity and humility. Become so widespread i think it is influenced a whole Younger Generation in the workforce. We have gotten away from valuing of hard work and being a person of integrity and other qualities that we put in the same category there. I think a lot of it has to do with the almost panicky desire for celebrity. Because a lot of times, i say this in the book, your skills and talents are not used specifically for anybody and it may not be something that would make one famous. So i think too many of us are a pushing aside our own skills and talents in exchange for an opportunity to become famous. For nothing really. Because our society has put on such a high pedestal and it can only really be done on individual level to make someone of integrity who works hard and put that on a higher pedestal to value that more. I cannot help influencing her society but i know thats how i see things and i have a lot more respect for people who are working hard and have integrity than for those who does put that aside in order to get attention. Host lets hear from carolyn in virginia beach, virginia. Caller hi my name is Carolyn Christopher and i am on the east coast. Aykey for taking time to answer my question. There are so many outlets now, cable channels, amazon tv, youtube et cetera. Are we seeing better talent being discovered or too much mediocre talent and are people really just obsessed with becoming a star and wanting that 15 minutes of fame so to speak . Host can you address that a little bit. Guest that is a great point. Ikthink you will really like the book because they do go into there is a great writer breckenridge who had a good angle on the idea that mediocre talent sometimes rise up because the public can feel like a creator of that because they can point to it and say, we did that. That wasnt because they were talented, we did that. Where as if somebody is trulyng talented, will they get credit for just noticing 70 was a great actor or great violinist or something . That is one thing you will see in the book. And another thing i going to in the book because theres so many outlets that we were mentioning earlier, the appetite for a larger quantity of famous people is at its height. There must be enough famous people to fill all these hours, channels, websites and so, do we have mortality people now than we did 100 years ago . I dont really think so. I see your point, a lot will get broadened because you just need to fill the shelves with goods. Host here is the book calledhe fame the hijacking of reality, the author is justine bateman. Thank you for being a book to be. Guest thank you, i want to tell the callers, thank you your questions were intelligent and i appreciate that. I understand is not a moderated forum and you guys had great question. Host book tv and cspan. We recently asked jared huffman, what are you reading . I am delighted to tell you about this book. It is written by friend and constituent who spent 544 days in iranian prison. It is a story about that, its a