Shining in Shadows
Movie Stars of the 2000s
Edited by Murray Pomerance
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Book Presentation:
In the 2000s, new technologies transformed the experiences of movie-going and movie-making, giving us the first generation of stars to be just as famous on the computer screen as on the silver screen.
Shining in Shadows examines a wide range of Hollywood icons from a turbulent decade for the film industry and for America itself. Perhaps reflecting our own cultural fragmentation and uncertainty, Hollywood’s star personas sent mixed messages about Americans’ identities and ideals. Disheveled men-children like Will Ferrell and Jack Black shared the multiplex with debonair old-Hollywood standbys like George Clooney and Morgan Freeman. Iconic roles for women ranged from Renee Zellweger’s dithering romantics to Tina Fey’s neurotic professionals to Hilary Swank’s vulnerable boyish characters. And in this age of reality TV and TMZ, stars like Jennifer Aniston and “Brangelina” became more famous for their real-life romantic dramas—at the same time that former tabloid fixtures like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr. reinvented themselves as dependable leading men. With a multigenerational, international cast of stars, this collection presents a fascinating composite portrait of Hollywood stardom today.
About the Author:
MURRAY POMERANCE is an independent film scholar in Toronto. His many books include The Horse Who Drank the Sky, An Eye for Hitchcock, and Johnny Depp Starts Here, all from Rutgers University Press.
> From the same author:
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Moment of Action (2016)
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Hollywood's Chosen People (2012)
The Jewish Experience in American Cinema
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A Little Solitaire (2011)
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Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue (2011)
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Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice (2001)
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Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century
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> On a related topic:
Stellar Transformations (2022)
Movie Stars of the 2010s
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Glamour in a Golden Age (2011)
Movie Stars of the 1930s
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What Dreams Were Made Of (2011)
Movie Stars of the 1940s
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Subject: On Films > Per period
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