The Dark Side of Stardom
By Christopher Stone
Fame is fickle, and stardom’s flip side harbors and reflects darkness.
Stardom on a network situation comedy had been Grant Jackson’s lifelong dream. Ambitious, young, and willing to do almost anything, Grant makes his dream come true at age twenty-three.
When we meet him, in 2004, Grant Jackson is a star of NBC-TV’s Our House.
The reality of television stardom is heady and intoxicating. As a songwriter once put it, “The sound of applause is delicious, it’s a thrill to have the world at your feet.” And Grant’s new-found celebrity lives up to his expectations: The money, the recognition, striving for creative excellence, and stratospheric rating numbers every week.
But stardom’s flip side is despair. The knives are always out. One of Grant’s co-stars harbors a cocaine addiction. Another co-star masks a career-busting sexual secret—as does Grant Jackson himself.