Economy of Celebrity

Why did she attract so much attention for wearing the dress? How did it serve her? How did the subsequent media attention shape her public persona? It is important to remember that performers like Peters are part of an economy of celebrity, and as Josephine Dolan notes, “whenever we see a star […] at a red carpet event, […] they are at work,” and that work entails the building and promoting of capital.[1] Peters’ appearance both augmented Bob Mackie’s economic capital by serving as a vehicle to promote his forthcoming book and her own embodied cultural capital by shoring up her youthful, or “ageless,” persona.

Just under two months after the 2021 Tony Award ceremony, Bob Mackie published the “first-ever, comprehensive and authorized showcase” of his work, The Art of Bob Mackie.[2] The day after the ceremony, the official Instagram account of Bob Mackie posted about the stars and tulle dress. The caption reads, “Bernadette has been Bob’s friend and client for over 5 decades and is features in his new book ‘The Art of Bob Mackie,’” and the post includes two photos of Peters in the dress in 2021, one photo of Peters in the dress in 1983, a sketch of the dress, and, finally, the cover of the book.[3]

Mackie and Peters re-teamed to sell the book in March 2023 with a book signing event at Rizzoli bookstore. I attended the event, so I know that Peters drew attention to the fact that Mackie originally designed the black blouse she was wearing in 1977.[4] Mackie remembered it was a piece from the mini wardrobe he made for Peters when she moved to Hollywood (Peters specifically remembered wearing some of these pieces on The Muppet Show).[5] This time the re-worn garment was even older: forty-six years! Not only does Peters re-wearing Mackie drive book sales, but it is also a testament to the quality and longevity of the garments he designs.

Returning to how Peters benefited from the media attention surrounding the Mackie gown. It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that Peters’ public relations agency (Katz PR) seeded interest in Peters Tony Awards look even before Mackie posted about it on Instagram. The gown was not so recognizable that the average Tonys viewer would recognize it on sight, so it was only after Tara Derington tweeted side by side photos of Peters in the dress in 1983 and 2021 praising her for demonstrating “range” by wearing a dress from the 1980s that the look started to go viral.[6] Now, this could have been the lucky discovery of an eagle-eyed fan, but Derington’s Twitter (now X) profile reveals that she is the Director of Social Media for Paramount, which is significant because Paramount+ and CBS broadcasted the Tony Awards. The first half of the ceremony streamed on Paramount+ and the second half, billed as a primetime special, The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!, aired on CBS. It was a confusing way to present the awards ceremony and Derington’s post may have even attracted viewers who weren’t watching on Paramount+ to tune in for the primetime broadcast. After all, Peters would be a major draw as a high profile Broadway performer (remember that her Esquire profile was called “Broadway Baby”) whose name instantly conjures the glitz and glamour of commercial musical theatre that would be on display in the ceremony.

The side by side photos of Peters in 1983 and 2021 essentially function as “before and after” imagery that reveal how little Peters’ face and body have changed in the intervening years. As Molly Andrews writes, “the unspecified but clearly preferred method of successful ageing is, by most accounts, not to age at all” or at least to “minimise the extent to which it is apparent one is ageing.”[7] That Peters appears relatively youthful in both images gives her an air of “agelessness” and shores up her youthful persona. Sadie Wearing writes that “before and after” photos “disavow the actual duration of time, the labor that occurs between the two images, effecting a spectacle of instantaneous transformation.”[8] Wearing is writing about what she calls “the makeover paradigm,” but I see something similar happening here. Crucially, these photos leave out the painstaking effort required to combat ageing, to maintain the same weight for nearly forty years—the cosmetic surgery, dieting, exercise, and expensive skin care products are invisible. Her ageing looks like an effortless achievement.