Celebrities, Idols, Icons, "poor relatives" in Semiotics of Culture

This article wants to make use of the semiotics of culture methodology to address fame as a key phenomenon of our media semiosphere. In particular, we will pay attention to the links fame establishes with religious discourse and the construction of idols and icons in highly mediated environments. Historically related to the problem of the sacred image and its regulation, they are presented today as states of superlative fame and as elements that continue to speak of the attitude we maintain with the images we create. We will observe, in a macro perspective, what remains, what has disappeared and what has been incorporated into our conception of current idols and icons, poor relatives of culture, with respect to the regimes of meaning established by their religious namesakes.