MEGASTAR

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) A performer or media 'personality' who has achieved fame and fortune on a very large scale and enjoys the publicity and lavish lifestyle that go with stardom; a star who is considered greater even than a superstar. Etymology: Formed from the combining form mega- (from Greek megas 'great') and star. History and Usage: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the entertainment industry produced stars; between the twenties and the seventies some were great enough to be called superstars; by the late seventies and early eighties, the next step on the ladder of increasing media hype was to call them megastars. Some of the ingredients of megastardom seem to be international renown, perhaps in more than one medium (especially films and television), great wealth and extravagance of lifestyle, and a vigorous publicity machine to keep the glitzy image in the public eye. The Australian comedian Barry Humphries, in his role as Dame Edna Everage, has done much to popularize--and at the same time to debunk--the concept of the megastar on television. Elton--born Reginald Kenneth Dwight--did not, as Jagger and Lennon did, become a tax exile and disappear off into megastardom. Independent Magazine 11 Feb. 1989, p. 23 Sometimes, when I'm doing my shows, I see people in the audience slipping from their seats into a kneeling position and I say, 'Get up! Off your knees! Back into your seat!' After all, I'm just a megastar, no more than that. I'm frail. I have my weaknesses. Above all, I want to show my human side. 'Dame Edna' in She Oct. 1990, p. 116