Did we like it?

Julie Burchill’s history of celebdom left us cold.

What was good about it?

• Just three of the observations on “celebs”:

Paul Morley: “It’s one of the few things where we feel we have power. We can give them a good kicking, we can slag them off and be really rude to them without any real consequences coming back.” (Accompanied by photos of Daniella Westbrook and Anthea Turner)

Mark Frith: “We don’t know our neighbours anymore. This is a thing that can bond people and bring them together.”

Clive James: “Can an economy run when it’s producing nothing but fame and consuming it? It looks like it can because other people in the world will make all the things we need.”

• Tara Palmer-Tomkinson scored a few points with us for admitting she’s a “well-connected nobody” and “I was very much a created thing. Being a 22-year-old girl, I loved it” and “It’s probably quite a good experience to see a picture of me with fake tan running down my neck.”

• The hilarious clip of Blue’s Lee Ryan being interrogated about his charitable works. “I wanna do a lot for third world countries, cruelty to animals and stuff like that, like nuclear testing – all that sort of stuff.”

What was bad about it?

• An insight into the story of Heat magazine’s success would have been enjoyable and fresh; Julie’s trawl through the history of adoration was as exciting as another picture of a soap star’s sweat stain.

• Julie’s arguments and descriptions were pseudo-intellectual or just dim eg Celebrity is “a tempestuous marriage of people and technology feeding off each other in a mutually beneficial frenzy”; her claim that film premieres are the modern day hangings

• “Entertainment journalist” Ashley Pearson, a horribly shrill American who popped up every few minutes, spouting nothing of interest. She’s shot into our Top 10 People We’d Love To Slap list.

• Dull contributions from Caprice and Mr Holy Moly

• More attention to paid to dim nobody Chantelle