My Kind of Celebrity Gossip

If you're in London sometime between May 16th and September 18th, you should visit the Tate Britain for the Joshua Reynolds exhibition "The Creation of Celebrity." From the Tate's website:

The exhibition brings together a selection of the greatest portraits by Reynolds, many of them depicting the most famous men and women of the eighteenth century, such as the writer Samuel Johnson, the actress Mrs Siddons, the political philosopher Edmund Burke and the actor David Garrick, as well as courtesans, aristocrats and military leaders. Collectively, they represent the cream of British society of the era. But Reynolds did not simply paint these individuals. He befriended them, brought them into contact with one another, shaped their public images, and massaged their egos.

(Painting: Le Lady Walgrave, Joshua Reynolds, via drammaturgia.it)