Back then there might be an article in the back of the paper about that celebrity, maybe just a paragraph. Today there are many 24-hour TV channels. People are glued to celebrity worship today like they could never be before
On this thread there are multiple examples that show that’s not true. We’ve got celebrity stuff as front page news dating back to the Civil War. Yes we do have more media now, which translates to more celebrity news, but as long as there’s been news (dating back to Roman criers) celebrities have been a front and center portion of it.