In recent years, star study has evolved from semiotic, sociological and ideological analysis to take in the significance of stars in the history of Hollywood as a business, conceived as the centre of global media industries. In this light, the history of stardom from the early picture personalities to today's personal star brands emerges as one of increasing commodification. While stars have always been commodities, the proliferation of cross-media marketing synergies has produced a form of commodity stardom in which the commercial aspects of their work are more visible, and more accessible, to consumers via new technologies. In investigating the phenomenon of star power, scholars focus on stars’ value in selling films (and themselves) as part of the market-driven enterprises of global media conglomerates, looking at their promotional activities and their function in branding processes (Grainge 2008). A growing body of academic work focuses on the impact of celebrity culture on modern stardom, shifting attention towards extra-cinematic manifestations of star identities. As star discourse traverses an increasing number of channels and platforms, the challenge for star study is to unpick the intricate intertextual relationships between the arenas in which it appears. In this fluid situation, star personas are made and remade in consumer interactions with media outpourings that are not easy to apprehend. Nicole Kidman exemplifies this quandary; she epitomises the modern commodity star whose image is displayed across a bewildering array of media forms and commercial activities.

In spite of the acknowledgement that stardom encompasses multiple activities across diverse sites, there is relatively little detailed analysis of star acting outside their dramatic roles in film, or consideration of the different kinds of performance produced in specific media contexts. An actor's onscreen roles and their wider public persona both depend on performance and the adoption of a character. However, the skills deployed in acting for the cinema are more highly esteemed and have received more critical attention than those used in interactions with the media. Writing about acting in cinema, James Naremore draws on Erving Goffman's pioneering work to argue that professional acting is related to the role-playing that characterises everyday social behaviour and presentations of self (Naremore 1998: 3).