In today’s all-pervasive communications society, with its arsenal of technological tools, fame is a conspicuous object of desire, an aspiration that requires no exceptional acts or achievements because universal recognition has become an end in itself. Famous people, celebrities and stars form a vast constellation of people who achieve fame – real social actors who sweep into our world before vanishing as quickly as they appeared. The rules and factors governing fame and celebrity throughout history have been determined by the structure of the public space and by the codes and techniques of socialisation. Thus TV, with all its power to create and disseminate images, initiated a new era in the history of fame that is still ongoing, despite strong competition from the Internet and social media that have introduced new rules into the way the frequency of dissemination constructs fame. Prestige, recognition and authority – factors that once shared a common space with fame – are no longer so relevant, being subject to forms of legitimation that have lost much of their importance.