"Without the dark we would never see the stars..."

So what makes a movie star? I thought this question would be a lot easier to answer than it actually was in class last week, since then I have been pondering why this is so...

I came to my own conclusion that a movie 'star' is much harder to define nowadays because we have a much larger breadth of film genres and categories compared to many years ago. We no longer have stars such as John Wayne who will forever be connected with westerns. It seems that actors nowadays are constantly wanting to challenge themselves to prove their diversity and range. This makes it harder for a modern day audience to connect a specific star to a specific genre of film. They no longer want to be labeled or typecast in this way.
I don't think this makes them any less stars however you do get the impression that they are somewhat 'watered down' in comparison to the stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
I do think that to be a star you really must possess that certain "Je ne sais quoi" quality, that certain spirit that makes you completely unique in the eyes of the puplic.
I think this picture above of Marylin Monroe perfectly illustrates what a 'star' is to me. Just look at her, she's just radiates this luminous glow that immediately makes you what to be her or at least 'have what she's having', she completely sells the fantasy that her life is amazing.

Marilyn couldn't act if her life depended on it, not to mention her far from perfect singing voice and yet her personality completely transcends these 'minor details' on the screen, when she's on the screen she has the ability to completely charm & beguile you. To me, this is what made her a true icon. She was one of the first voluptuous women stars at the time made her stand out from the rest, it added to her persona of being this bubbly, sexy pin-up. 
During our Chaplin phase in 1st year we spoke of how you could draw Chaplin's The Tramp with three brush stokes and someone could guess who it was making him an iconic figure. I think the same goes for marilyn, her platinum blonde hair, beauty spot, red lips, the white dress that got lifted by the breeze of the subway vent. You could easily make a caricature of her that people would guess, this is one of the main factors of an icon, instantly recognisable and unique. 

So no, I don't think we have the same star system we had years ago. It has become to easy to be in a movie or famous without being either really unique or extremely talented. This means that the stars we do posses are lost in the murky waters of reality TV stars and talentless robots. They are still shining out there somewhere, merely harder to find. All is well, we still have Meryl Streep, thank God for Meryl Streep! 

This is a photo of when I saw Monroe's star which was placed on the Hollywood Boulevard on February 9th, 1960!!!