Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr presents "Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame"

Ty Burr, film critic for The Boston Globe, gives us a history of stardom, from the dawn of cinema to the age of the Internet, with stops along the way to discuss the talkies, Brando, The Beatles, lonelygirl15, and much, much more.

How—and why—do we focus on those individuals we come to call stars? How does stardom both reflect and mask the person behind it? How have the image of stardom and our stars' images changed over the past hundred years? What does celebrity mean if people can become famous simply for being famous? Ty Burr answers these questions in this lively, wonderfully anecdotal history of stardom—both its blessings and its curses, for the star and the stargazer alike. From Florence Lawrence, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, to Archie Leach (a.k.a. Cary Grant), Ruby Stevens (a.k.a. Barbara Stanwyck), and Marion Morrison (a.k.a. John Wayne), to John Belushi, Tom Cruise, and Julia Roberts, to such no-cal stars of today as the Kardashians and the new online celebrity (i.e., you and me), Burr takes us on a brilliantly insightful and entertaining journey through the modern fame game at its flashiest, its most indulgent, occasionally its most tragic and, ultimately, its most culturally revealing.

Please join us at Concord Bookshop on Sunday, October 7 at 3pm as Ty Burr reads from, takes questions from the audience, and signs Gods Like Us. The event is free and open to the public; seating begins at 2:30 pm.