Celebrity gossip may be great for clickbait, but even the most devoted fans have their limits when it comes to coverage overload.
Case in point: the budding romance of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. The obsession surrounding their rumored relationship has left people either feeling hooked or exhausted by constant updates. Some, like The View co-host Sara Haines, believe the whole thing may be a publicity stunt.
Regardless of where you stand, one thing is clear: Swift and Kelce are certainly not the only duo who’ve sparked feelings of celebrity fatigue.
In 2018, critics attributed the lackluster box office performance of Skyscraper to Dwayne Johnson’s overexposure, noting he had already starred in five films and a TV series within the last year. In 2014, Jennifer Lawrence was wary of the possibility, telling Marie Claire, “People are going to get sick of me. My picture is everywhere, my interviews are everywhere.” In 2017, she took a 2-year break from acting.
In 2013, Anne Hathaway stepped back from the spotlight after winning an Oscar for Les Miserables. The actress, who dominated headlines for weeks and sparked a wave of so-called “Hathahaters,” later told the Huffington Post she felt “people needed a break from me.”
Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus, Kevin Hart and the Kardashians are among the stars who have also faced celebrity fatigue. While many manage to rebound, some haven’t.
To understand the ins and outs of who’s in and who’s out, we spoke with celebrity publicists to shed light on the fine line between love and loathe.
What is celebrity fatigue?
Celebrity fatigue is a phenomenon where the public becomes overwhelmed or disinterested due to the excessive media coverage or overexposure of a celebrity, or celebrities. Liza Anderson, Hollywood publicist and founder of Anderson Group Public Relations, said it’s something all publicists are “extremely aware of.”
“There used to be an expression that ‘all press is good press.’ I don’t necessarily believe that’s true. There has to be a balance,” Anderson told Yahoo Entertainment. “You want to make sure they’re connected to their audience and they’re connected to their fans, but not so much where the fans are rolling their eyes every time they hear their name.”
Matthew Cancel, CEO and founder of Cancel Communications, said fatigue can sometimes happen when celebrities routinely appear in the press or at red carpets without having anything to promote, leading fans to feel disassociated from them.
“It shows you can’t sustain momentum in what you’re supposed to be doing,” Cancel told Yahoo Entertainment. “If you’re a singer and you had one successful album and you’re just riding that high for the next 10 years of your career, it looks a bit lame.”
Len Evans, co-founder of Project Publicity, said it’s about “quality over quantity” when it comes to showing face. “A good publicist will turn down a lot of stuff,” he explained to Yahoo. “You don’t want to be in every magazine. You don’t want to be on every talk show. Strategy for a celebrity is key.”
How does it affect a star’s marketability?
When a celebrity is overexposed, there’s a risk of being devalued.
“It’s exciting for the consumer to have you identify with a brand,” Cancel explained. “If you’re a celebrity, and you do [dozens] of campaigns for different companies, no one’s going to associate you with anything. Your celebrity isn’t going to have brand recognition, and that’s going to water down every single partnership you do.”
That may lead to smaller brand deals, less money and fewer opportunities, said Anderson.
In the case of Swift, however, her reliable public presence may work in her favor. The Eras Tour concert movie, which recently surpassed $100 million in presales, opens in theaters Oct. 13.
“You don’t want to disappear before your film,” Anderson said of Swift. “It’ll be really interesting to see, after the film is out, if she goes on a nice little vacation.”
When is it overkill?
Evans said celebrities walk a fine line between sharing too much and maintaining a bit of mystery, especially in the age of social media.
“You don’t want to post all the time,” he said. “There’s a lot of celebrities that are quick to post, and it looks like they’re just desperate for attention.”
Navigating fatigue on social media is complicated, said Cancel, especially since most stars have contractual obligations to share a certain number of branded posts on their pages. If strategized poorly, it could lead to unintentional oversaturation.
“If you’re on tour and you sign on to 50 stadiums, you may be contractually obligated to post at every single stadium,” he explained. “That becomes a little tricky, because you have to do it and there’s really no way around it. It does get a bit overwhelming and annoying for the consumer.”
Still, that’s different for someone like Swift, Cancel said. “She’s posting every single stadium to the 70,000 people that went that night, and they want to see that post.”
‘There’s huge benefits in maintaining a little mystery’
“People like Angelina Jolie and even George Clooney. You get what they stand for and what their brand is,” said Anderson. “Angelina Jolie goes to Africa, she’s part of the United Nations, she shared her journey with breast cancer and she’s a great mom. But you don’t really know anything about her.”
Evans cited Beyoncé as a star who has also figured out a balance.
“She doesn’t take pictures with people. She doesn’t do press,” he explained. “You don’t really know anything about her, she’s very private. People want more, and they don’t get enough, so when she does a big feature in a magazine, people are glad to see her.”
Anderson pointed to Julia Roberts as someone who benefits from “maintaining a little mystery.”
“When you look at stars like Julia Roberts, you don’t see her walking down the street with her kids in front of the paparazzi or being interviewed by TMZ,” she said. “She still has box office draw because she takes a step into the spotlight and then a step out, then a step in and a step out.”
Jennifer Lopez has faced several bouts of celebrity fatigue in her career, said Cancel, but now appears to be working the “step back” approach.
“For the past six years, it’s been so much J.Lo and not in a good way,” he says. “I feel like she’s finally taking a step back to figure out what her next move is so she can be able to produce a hit, produce a number one movie and sell a brand that people want to buy.”
‘Changing with the times’
As technology evolves, celebrity fatigue continues to be a tricky mountain to climb, Anderson said.
“As a publicist, you have to be changing with the times,” she explained. That includes understanding the worlds of TikTok and Instagram, which require “grabbing somebody’s attention in 10 seconds.”
“It’s going to be a fascinating case study,” she said of future trends. “The only thing I can count on is the fact that human nature doesn’t change that much. But trends, platforms, who’s famous and who isn’t? They’re constantly changing.”
