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Contents > Big Fish/Little Fish: Perceptions of Celebrity by Joyleen Christensen
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Although this elaborate scientific construction is obviously intended to be farcical in nature, it does, nevertheless, provide an extremely useful method for easily communicating the relative social ranking of disparate individuals.

Through the use of three simple tables that impose an artificial class register of celebrities, I propose to demonstrate how we may position individuals within a global context without losing sight of their native celebrity status. Each of these tables is a sample representation of the public social ranking of a number of celebrities who have been divided into various fame classifications according to Schulman’s logarithmic equation. Taking each individual’s Google ‘hit’ rating as it was on 23 February 2007, I have applied the logarithmic function in Table 1 using Monica Lewinsky’s ‘hit’ count of 1,260,000 as the ‘standard for fame comparison’.

Table 1: Classified Celebrities

Name Hits Fame List
Britney Spears 34,100,000 14.32 A
Bill Gates 32,700,000 14.14
The Beatles 17,200,000 11.35
Jesus Christ 13,800,000 10.39
Bill Clinton 12,400,000 9.93
Albert Einstein 12,200,000 9.86
Brad Pitt 4,850,000 5.85
David Beckham 4,060,000 5.08
Tiger Woods 3,110,000 3.92 B
Kylie Minogue 3,050,000 3.84
Nicole Kidman 2,140,000 2.30
Cate Blanchett 1,810,000 1.57
Jackie Chan 1,660,000 1.19
Jet Li 1,620,000 1.09
Russell Crowe 1,540,000 0.87
John Howard 1,510,000 0.78
Heath Ledger 1,410,000 0.49
Andy Lau 1,380,000 0.39
Monica Lewinsky 1,260,000 0
The Wiggles 1,180,000 -0.28
Chow Yun-Fat 1,150,000 -0.39
Shane Warne 897,000 -1.47
Ian Thorpe 798,000 -1.98
Stephen Chow 741,000 -2.30
Leslie Cheung 682,000 -2.67
Jacky Cheung 483,000 -4.16
Nicholas Tse 388,000 -5.11 C
Aaron Kwok 365,000 -5.38
Leon Lai 334,000 -5.77
Eric Tsang 302,000 -6.20
Francis Ng 239,000 -7.22
Cathy Freeman 237,000 -7.26
Eason Chan 233,000 -7.33
Tim Winton 164,000 -8.85
Lau Ching-wan 135,000 -9.70
Nick Cheung 108,000 -10.67
Eddie Maguire 74,200 -12.30
Bert Newton 63,900 -12.60
Eric Kot 53,500 -13.72
Gretel Killeen 46,900 -14.29
Nicky Wu 40,500 -14.93
Daryl Somers 34,600 -15.61 D
Teddy Robin Kwan 16,500 -18.83
Ray Meagher 16,000 -18.96
Matthew Krok 4,200 -37.93 F
ME!!! 24 -47.20 G

Table 2 catalogues the Australian figures recorded in Table 1 and makes necessary adjustments (taking Eddie Maguire as the ‘Australian standard for fame comparison’) to give a more accurate depiction of the Australian celebrity hierarchy.

Table 2: Classified Australian Celebrities

Name Hits Fame List
Kylie Minogue 3,050,000 16.14 A
Nicole Kidman 2,140,000 14.60
Cate Blanchett 1,810,000 13.87
Russell Crowe 1,540,000 13.17
John Howard 1,510,000 13.08
Heath Ledger 1,410,000 12.79
The Wiggles 1,180,000 12.01
Shane Warne 897,000 10.82
Ian Thorpe 798,000 10.31
Cathy Freeman 237,000 5.04
Tim Winton 164,000 3.44 B
Eddie Maguire 74,200 0
Bert Newton 63,900 -0.65
Gretel Killeen 46,900 -1.99
Daryl Somers 34,600 -3.31
Ray Meagher 16,000 -6.66 C
Matthew Krok* 4,200 -12.47
‘The Kid from Hey Dad’* 203 -25.63 D

* Interestingly, if we were to substitute the generic title ‘The Kid from Hey Dad’ for the name ‘Matthew Krok’ we would have a hit count of 203 (fame = -25.63) – placing the same individual in both the ‘C’ and ‘D’ List Celebrity categories!

 

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Contents > Big Fish/Little Fish: Perceptions of Celebrity by Joyleen Christensen