In the 1952 film Singing in the Rain, the song "Lucky Star" described portals being opened on earth so that fans and celebrities could co-mingle in celestial bliss. With the advent of the internet, such a portal opened wide. In the mid-1990s celebrity websites and unofficial fan sites kept fans informed about their favorite celebrity’s latest projects, and often created communities between fans themselves. Much more than a 1960-1970’s style fan newsletter, the internet gave fans a feeling of intimacy, but a mediated intimacy. In the last two years, Twitter has provided a number of celebrities with a place to update fans and “tweet” back and forth an innumerable number of times in any given day. This accentuates the intimacy to such a level that it becomes a “caricature” – the minute-to-minute updates accentuate the illusion that the fan “knows” the celebrity, but the distance and mediation are still carefully maintained. What are the philosophical implications of such relationships between fans and celebrities? Are fangurls and fanboys merely in love with the feeling of being in love, a modern day counter example to Plato’s Gorgias? Should one employ an ethic of care between fans and celebrities, or should one apply an ethics of justice approach? Do fans "owe" celebrities a certain amount of distance and respect, for example, should they refrain from patronizing celebrity stalker paparazzi websites? If a fan chooses to spend years engaging in website creation and maintenance for their favorite star, does that star then owe the fan something in return, in the sense of reciprocal Kantian duties? If we return to the example of Singing in the Rain, it quickly becomes clear that an Aristotelian approach involving moderation of the appetites is necessary. At first, Kathy Selden disingenuously pretends she doesn’t know who the star, Don Lockwood, is. The song “Lucky Star”, in which she confesses the extent of her fan obsession, was cut out of the original theatrical release of the film. What makes Kathy Selden an exemplary fan is the way she moderates her desires and lives out the Golden Mean – helping Don Lockwood in saving his film The Dueling Cavalier, but intending to end their liaison when it becomes clear that her own career and talents would be misused. Fan-Celebrity relationships on the internet would benefit from this type of Aristotelian moderation.

James, Christine (2020). A Caricature of Intimacy: Online Fan Communities and Intimacy between Strangers. BRILL: Love on Trial: Adjusting and Assigning Relationships. 1 electronic record (PDF).