Ebook: Dead celebrities, living icons: tragedy and fame in the age of the multimedia superstar

Introduction: Saints in the age of electronic stained glass -- pt. 1. Birth and rise (the 1930s) -- Howard Hughes, the world's first serial crash artist -- Walt Disney builds the cosmos electric -- pt. 2. Classics (the 1950s) -- The weird and fantastic tale of the pixellation and disintegration of Elvis Presley -- James Dean's death by car crash : an autopsy -- The strange tale of the wondrous life and curious death of Marilyn Monroe -- pt. 3. Tribes (the 1960s) -- The assassination of J.F.K. considered as a case of media warfare -- Andy Warhol's cult of the dead celebrity -- The Beatles, their muse, a car crash, five bullets, and some flowers from the dead -- Jim Morrison awoke one morning to find himself transformed -- pt. 4. Sunset (the 1980s) -- Ronald Reagan : the celluloid man who nearly died -- The passion of Gianni Versace -- Princess Diana's media metamorphoses -- pt. 5. The myth today (2008) -- The multiple selves of Heath Ledger -- Michael Jackson's macrosphere : genesis, evolution, disintegration -- Afterword: On the otherworldly nature of electronic culture.