Introduction: Why study celebrity and crisis?

The issue emerges from the desire to explore the world of celebrities - and their role - in moments of crisis. It tackles a set of features apparent in prominent personalities and idols of many sorts, found on-screen and off-screen, in photographic reportage or discourse. These features are critical aspects that have traditionally been kept away from celebrities’ polished images. Celebrities stand out, in effect, for their being a winning model, capable of conveying an image close to perfection. Exploring how and when celebrities show, narrate and present themselves in a condition of imperfection, or in an unconventional, disputable, or defective position, is instrumental to understand a society’s conceptualization of a number of critical conditions, such as cultural marginalization, impairment, ageing, or death.