Co-presented with LIVE from the New York Public Library

Who has never dreamed of becoming famous? What is in a famous name? Why do we love stars and icons so much and why are we fascinated by them? Aren’t fame and celebrity all relative? In the era of the Internet, do we finally have a good chance to get our 15 minutes of fame, or are we just a few clicks away from suddenly becoming ephemeral stars against our will? Essayist and literary critic Cécile Guilbert has written outstanding essays on icons like Andy Warhol, Guy Debord and Lawrence Sterne, poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum is the author of Andy Warhol and Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting An Icon, and cultural theorist Laura Kipnis has recently published How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior.