So what’s the point of negotiating for that People exclusive cover when you can just post the photos yourself, in the exact way you choose - no meddling, manipulating middlemen required?Īround the turn of the decade, early adopters began to realize you didn’t even need a sex tape to embark on a career as a Who, such was the power of social media. Soon, those celebrities’ Instagram accounts would have more reach than the tabloid magazines they would’ve once sold their photos to. Even the most popular stars realized they could keep in touch with their fans by creating their own highly curated social channels. And we sat there, on our phones, waiting to click through. Former cast members of reality-TV shows have been able to extend their shelf life by amassing a following on the social-media platform of their choice. You can now get famous, or at least sort of famous, by creating a popular blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram account. Stories of actors struggling to make it in Hollywood, the kind of all-or-nothing narrative you see in movies like La La Land, have been made obsolete. Whodom was enabled by social media: Our new, post-Facebook internet allows the fame game to be played on a weirdly level field. Whos have been raised on celebrity culture, and they reflect its values back at us in their deep desire for fame and their performance of it. It takes hard work and an unslakable thirst to become a Who. But don’t confuse Whodom with obscurity or viral fame. Whos can only ever be a little bit famous there is something charming about that, like a homespun version of celebrity. For example, there are Explainers - take Us Weekly’s “Who Is Becca Kufrin? 5 Things to Know About the New Bachelorette,” which includes such facts as “She’s Got Beauty and Brains” and “She’s an Animal Lover.” The click-seeking media cover Whos with nearly as much passion as they do those on A- and B-lists (“Thems,” as we like to call those more recognizable stars), even if the Who has no immediately discernible skills or credits to his or her name. They used to be known as C-through-Z-list celebrities. These people, the sorta famous, have always been with us. But to ignore Whos, or pretend to be above them, is to miss out on the cultural conversation of the moment: We are living, increasingly, in a Who universe. A Wholebrity (or just a “Who”) is the kind of celebrity - or “celebrity” - whose name makes many of us stop and ask: “Who?” The average celebrity-gossip connoisseur might have a difficult time matching a Wholebrity’s name to a face. Lindsey Weber and Bobby Finger are the co-hosts of a podcast called Who? Weekly, a guide to “everything you need to know about the celebrities you don’t.”
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