A-list

For other uses, see A-list (disambiguation).

A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry or to major recording artists, major international sports stars or miscellaneous occupations such as the most successful film directors, certain high profile media and entertainment moguls and the most notable international TV broadcasters.

The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood. James Ulmer has also developed a Hot List of directors.[1]

The Ulmer scale categorizes the lists into A+, A, B+, B, C, and D listings.

Popular usage

In popular usage outside the film industry, an "A-list celebrity" simply refers to any person with an admired or desirable social status.[2] In recent times, the term has given rise to any person, regardless of profession, in the limelight. Even socialites with popular press coverage and elite associations have been termed as "A-list" celebrities. Similarly, less popular persons and current teen idols are referred to as "B-list" – and the ones with lesser fame "C-list".[3] Entertainment Weekly interpreted C-list celebrity as "that guy (or sometimes that girl), the easy-to-remember but hard-to-name character actor".[4]

"D-list" is the lowest rating on the Ulmer Scale,[5] and it is often used to describe persons whose celebrity is so obscure that they are generally only known for appearances as so-called celebrities on panel game shows and reality television. Kathy Griffin, a comedian who became widely known for her frequent appearances on such programs, uses the term in a tongue-in-cheek manner for her TV series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Alternatively successive letters of the alphabet beyond D, such as "E-list" or "Z-list", are used for exaggeration or comic effect, but effectively have the same meaning as D-list.

Some celebrities who begin their careers in this way eventually rise in fame to upper levels of the B-list such as Paris Hilton.

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.