Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity

Generally, to ensure that No Celebrities Were Harmed, it's common for a character to be a fan of an Expy or thinly-disguised but never named version of a real person. But, sometimes — whether for verisimilitude, Author Appeal, or in rare cases, even a Take That! (no, not that version of Take That) — a character will be a fan of a "real" celebrity who exists in our world. After all, fictional people are just like us. They have favorite music, movies, and TV, too. It may be a Celebrity Crush but needs to have further relevance beyond that fact to qualify for this trope as well as that one. It's common for this to be the pretext for a celebrity to appear As Himself.

For this to be notable, it needs to go beyond Poster-Gallery Bedroom and be explicitly and significantly mentioned in-universe. It also isn't just a namedrop but requires fandom of a specific person to be important and significant to the plot. They may be a Loony Fan or a Straw Fan, but they don't need to be. See Fangirl too. If their fandom is more general and not specifically related to an individual, it may fall under Born in the Wrong Century.

Not to be confused with Fandom VIP (when there's a fan who gains some level of fame, to the point of potentially being noticed by creators) or One of Us, when a celebrity proves they're just like us and is a fan of something or someone, too. If the real-life celebrity is portraying a character in the work as well, it can lead to a Celebrity Paradox.

Contrast History with Celebrity, when a celebrity is an important part of the story or a character's backstory, but it isn't linked to fandom. Compare Historical Character's Fictional Relative, which is when the author also likes to mix reality and fantasy, but with family rather than fandom.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Eensy Weensy Monster: Nanoha loves sumo. In a scene, she is showing to her besties her cell phone strap, which is a doll of the sumo wrestler Kotomitsuki Keiji. Renge says she prefers Kokkai Futoshi, another wrestler.
• Momo Ayase from Dandadan has a huge Celeb Crush on actor Ken Takakura, which has lead to her dating at least one Bastard Boyfriend because he looked like him and refusing to call Okarun by his real name (also Ken Takakura) because he looks and acts nothing like his namesake apart from sometimes calling himself an "awkward fellow" like the actor did in a commercial he's known for (which flusters her to no end).
• Jujutsu Kaisen: A Running Gag in the series is Itadori's obsession with Jennifer Lawrence. Momo Nishimiya is also a fan of Sebastian Stan.
• Iino from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is a big fan of Sho Hirano, even stating at one point that she'd watch a movie "ten billion times" after hearing that he'd be playing the male lead. The unstated punchline is that he was the design basis for her eventual Love Interest Ishigami.
• Hikari no Densetsu: Ever since Bulgarian gymnast Diliana Georgieva made history in multiple Olympic events during The '80s, Hikari has idealized her and wished to be just like her, having posters of her in her room and taking up rhythmatic gymnasts at her school club.

Comic Books

• Deadpool is a very vocal fan of Bea Arthur and Betty White. And with the former, it goes all the way to sexual attraction, even if Arthur is way older than him.
• The Punisher Presents Barracuda: The drug-running, execution-happy but CIA-backed dictator president Leopoldo Luna has a massive statue of Ronald Reagan in his backyard. It's meant to be a Take That! towards Reagan's policies, and when Luna reminisces about meeting Reagan he was clearly already suffering from brain disease.

Films — Animation

• The Movie for Baby Shark's Big Show! reveals that Baby Shark and William are die-hard fans of K-pop boyband ENHYPEN.
• The titular duo of Lilo & Stitch are big fans of Elvis Presley. Several of his songs appear in the original film and the sequel films.

Films — Live-Action

• Borat: Borat has a crush on Pamela Anderson and goes to America to propose to her. When she turns him down, he tries to abduct her. By the time of Borat Subsequent Movie Film, he is a huge fan of Donald Trump.
• Hounddog: Lewellen is a big fan of Elvis Presley, to the point where catching a glimpse of him after one of his concerts provides her with the strength to go on.
• The main characters in I Wanna Hold Your Hand are massive fans of The Beatles.
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer: Kim is a fan of Ellie Goulding. She listens to "Explosions" while she's in her bedroom with Martin, and sings "Burn" for him in an eerie moment of foreshadowing both her crush and the devastating consequences his involvement in her family will have.
• Zig Zagged in Office Space. One character coincidentally shares a name with Michael Bolton. Said character cannot stand said singer, in part because he's tired of the name always being pointed out. That being said, he will pretend to be a fan around others if he thinks it will benefit him.
• The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement: When going through the list of potential suitors for Mia so she may secure the throne of Genovia, a slide of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (who was 22 years old and unmarried at the time) comes up. Though Mia is ecstatic, he is quickly ruled out as a candidate because he's in line for his own crown.
  Joe: If he's not eligible, then why is he in these slides?
  Charlotte: [dreamily] I just love to look at him.
  Clarisse: Me too.
• Scream: Tara and Amber are both huge fans of so-called elevated horror, with Tara saying The Babadook is her favorite movie and Amber praising Jordan Peele. In Tara's case, it explains why she wouldn't know anything about Stab; in Amber's case, it's pure misdirection, since she's actually a Loony Fan of the fictional Stab.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: At the beginning of the movie, Sonic comments that he loves Keanu Reeves, even calling him "A National Treasure" when he sees Tom and his wife Maddie watching Speed.
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Almost every named character loves Nicolas Cage. Most notably, the billionaire Javi Gutierrez owns several memorabilia with Nick's likeness and pays a hefty fee to invite him to his birthday party. When Nick considers quitting acting early on, Javi cries, "To turn your back on that gift is to turn your back on the entire human race!", then helps write the actor's next movie.

Literature

• Patrick Bateman from American Psycho is a deep admirer of Donald Trump. In Patrick's view, Trump's public image defines the positive features of a life of supreme wealth, luxury, and extravagance which Patrick wants for himself. However, Patrick's own pursuits of such a lavish, materialistic lifestyle leave him a Broken Ace leading a meaningless existence—hollow, sentimentally empty, alienated, morally bankrupt, and purely evil.
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: As the name suggests, Trisha has a Celeb Crush on Tom Gordon. She uses his moves as inspiration for outrunning the bear, and he allows her to keep the faith during long days and nights trapped in the woods.
• I Think I Love You: Protagonist Petra is a fangirl of David Cassidy during girlhood.
• Kirsty in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy is enough of a Sigourney Weaver fan that she uses Sigourney (not even Ripley, which would be the obvious reference) as her game name in Only You Can Save Mankind.
• Last Summer Boys by Bill Rivers is a coming-of-age story about a 13-yr old boy during the summer of 1968. His next older brother, Will, is a huge fan of Robert F. Kennedy and devours every tidbit he can find on the news and in magazines and local papers. He is therefore utterly devastated when the senator is assassinated. He goes off in a daze and camps in the woods by himself for two or three nights, and when he returns home he still doesn't want to talk about it.
• William Brittan wrote a series of stories (collected as The Man Who Read Mysteries) each featuring a protagonist who is a keen fan of one specific crime writer, and solves (or commits) a crime based on what they've read.
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation: The narrator is an obsessive fan of Whoopi Goldberg and watches her movies on repeat for seemingly days. She also likes Harrison Ford, though nowhere to the same extent as Whoopi.
• October Daye: Tybalt believes that William Shakespeare is the pinnacle of human culture (even giving himself a Meaningful Rename after a character from Romeo and Juliet). Sadly, he never got to meet him, being born thirty years after Shakespeare's death.
• Secrets: India is an obsessive fan of Anne Frank, which gives her the inspiration to hide Treasure after Treasure runs away from home.
• Things We Have In Common: Yasmin is a big fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, and goes so far as to consider Spock and Kirk's friendship inspiration for her own life and badly-thwarted methods of making friends.
• World War Z: Although the book usually avoids mentioning any celebrities by name, the soccer mom makes a point of saying that her daughter is a huge fan of Jamie Lynn Spears and buys all her merchandise. This resulted in the book becoming an Unintentional Period Piece upon its release in the mid-2000s due to Spears' Teen Pregnancy controversy.
• You (Kepnes): All over the place.
  • Joe loves Prince and regards him as the great poet of the modern era. He's also a huge fan of Tim O'Brien (of The Things They Carried) and Woody Allen, especially Hannah and Her Sisters, which shows his Genre Blindness because he regards it as a pure love story.
  • Peach is a huge fan of Elton John and listens to him all the time. This foreshadows that Peach herself is a Closet Gay, which she relates to in the music.
  • Beck's favorite movie is Pitch Perfect, though it's regarded in-universe as "basic".

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory:
  • Sheldon Cooper is enamored with both Stephen Hawking and Leonard Nimoy. He is thrilled to be able to play "Words with Friends" with the former (until he lets Hawking win, and Hawking calls him out on it), and goes absolutely nuts when Penny gives him a napkin used by the latter while she's working at The Cheesecake Factory.
    Sheldon: [in shock] I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy!
  • The guys in general tend to be fans of geek culture stars like Stan Lee, Katee Sackhoff, James Earl Jones, Adam West, and Mark Hamill (all of whom have guest-starred on the show).
  • Raj, the In Touch with His Feminine Side member of the guys, is particularly inspired by Sandra Bullock and Beyoncé.
  • Bernadette has expressed attraction to Chris Hemsworth, going to see Avengers: Endgame mostly for the Thor eye-candy.
• The Brady Bunch: One of the signature episodes of the series, "Getting Davy Jones," is framed around eldest teenage daughter Marcia promising her school that she will book Davy Jones (late of The Monkees) to sing at a junior high dance she is helping to organize. (Marcia is the president of a local fan club dedicated to Jones and his music.) Efforts throughout the episode focus on Marcia's attempts to get in contact with Davy, including visiting a television station (where, the previous day, he was interviewed for a local talk show) and ultimately a recording studio where he is recording a new song, "Girl." In the end, she (somehow) succeeds in her quest to get Davy Jones as promised.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Jake's favorite film is Die Hard, which inspired him to become a cop, and he's a big fan of Bruce Willis.
  • He's also a fan of John Wick, presumably for its similarities.
  • Taylor Swift is his favorite artist (and he's required to stay fifty feet away from her), though he tries to claim that it's Jay-Z.
• In Chewing Gum, Tracey is obsessed with Beyoncé to the extent of praying to a shrine to her in her room.
• CSI: NY: Det. Mac Taylor is a big fan of Ronald Reagan. He keeps a framed 8" X 10" of the president in his office, and one co-worker teases him about "that 8-hour documentary you're always watching."
• One episode of Derry Girls involves the girls hitchhiking their way to a Take That concert in Belfast (which was a real-life event). They accidentally leave James behind in their hurry to escape a perfectly-benign group of Irish Travellers, only to find that he's joined their ranks once they return to pick him up. He almost doesn't go with the girls, until Jonjo (one of the Travellers) insults Gary Barlow's songwriting, which James is a huge fan of.
• Doctor Who: Because the TARDIS can travel through time and space, the Doctor is a huge fan of many Earthly historical figures and celebrities, some of whom he gets to meet on his adventures. These include Charles Dickens, Vincent van Gogh, Agatha Christie, and William Shakespeare.
• Drake & Josh: Josh is an Oprah Winfrey superfan and expresses exaggerated excitement when Drake gets him two tickets to see her show live. This culminates in Josh running over Oprah during the mayhem of parking, and eventually, a restraining order.
• Euphoria:
  • Rue is a big fan of The Wire, which is ironic for a girl with her own drug addiction.
  • Jules loves Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and is inspired in her own styling as the new girl in town to emulate magical girls.
  • Kat is a fangirl of One Direction and writes fanfic that centres around Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson as a fulfillment for her own thwarted sexuality.
• On The Golden Girls, both Dorothy and Blanche are big fans of Alex Trebek. Dorothy is an avid Jeopardy! fan, while Blanche thinks he's incredibly sexy. She mentions having a recurring fantasy in which she begs him to sleep with her and he replies, "Ah ah ah, Blanche, in the form of a question."
• The Good Place: Eleanor is vocal about her Celebrity Crush on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and "once lied about having a terminal illness to meet Scott Wolf."
• The Good Wife and The Good Fight: Diane is a huge fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton, to the point where her loss in the 2016 election marked a Heroic BSoD for her. This also makes her an Odd Couple with her husband Kurt, who was a fan of Sarah Palin.
• How I Met Your Mother: Barney is a huge fan of William Zabka, who played his favorite character from The Karate Kid, Johnny Lawrence. During his bachelor party in Season 8, he expects his favorite actor to be there but it turns out Ted and Marshall invited Ralph Macchio, who played Daniel LaRusso, Barney's least favorite character in the movie. Fortunately, Zabka did come to Barney's bachelor party disguised as a clown which is part of Robin's plan to get even with Barney for pulling the Playbook stunt on her. Then in Season 9, Zabka shows up at Barney's wedding because Barney is one of the few people who didn't see him as a villain.
• MacGyver (2016): Jack Dalton is a notable fan of Bruce Willis. Die Hard marathons are a common occurrence with him, and when he died his friends held one in his honor.
• Mimpi Metropolitan:
  • Bambang and his father are fans of Maudy Koesnaedi, particularly her role as Zaenab in Si Doel Anak Sekolahan. One of Bambang's missions when he comes to Jakarta is to personally give his father's message to Maudy.
  • One of Alan's core characteristics is how he is a fan of Ariel Noah. He sings Noah's songs pretty often, his dormitory room is full of Ariel posters, and he eventually moves out of the dorm to become Noah's roadie.
• Monk: Monk is a fan of Willie Nelson, who appears As Himself in one episode as a murder suspect.
• The Nanny: Fran adores Barbra Streisand. In "Ode to Barbra Joan," Fran makes friends with C.C.'s father, who invites her to see a Streisand show (which C.C. had refused). She gives up in the end because C.C. gets depressed and jealous of the attention her father is giving to Fran, but in the end, he asks Barbra to talk to Fran on the telephone. Fran eventually goes to one of Barbra's shows with Maxwell in another episode, and comments she'll never forget when Barbra told her "Give my boots back".
• The Patient: Serial Killer Sam is a huge fan of Kenny Chesney, with him describing Chesney concerts as the happiest places on earth.
• Al Rawabi School For Girls: Dina is a fan of the K-pop group BTS and on the school field trip, she films herself dancing to their song Fake Love.
• Red Dwarf: The Skutters are shown to be a fan of John Wayne and are even part of his fan club.
• Sense8: Capheus is a big fan of actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. Not only does he name his tour bus the Van Damn, he often calls upon the spirit of the actor to help him, during his early fights and does many of his driving stunts during chase scenes.
• Stargate SG-1: Jack O'Neill is a big fan of Mary Steenburgen.
• In Stranger Things' fourth season, it becomes a plot point that Max is a big fan of Kate Bush, especially her song "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)". The song got a huge boost in profile as a result of the show, reaching Number 1 on the UK pop charts a full 37 years after its original release.
• Veronica Mars: When he was a kid, Logan had a crush on Rosie Perez, so Aaron invited her to his birthday party.
• What I Like About You: Val is a huge fan of Prince, to the point that her boyfriend getting them tickets to his concert makes her immediately break her promise to Holly to always make time to have dinner together once a week. Luckily, Holly thought it was an unnecessary and unkeepable promise in the first place and happily encourages Val to go.
• The Wilds: In Season 2, Leah Rilke mentions having a crush on Ben Folds when she was younger. Later on, she hallucinates him showing up on the beach, wearing a tux and singing to her.
• Will & Grace: Jack MacFarland's obsession with Cher frequently comes up as a source of humor on the show. He has been tricked into a situation twice with the promise of meeting Cher and once jumped down a garbage chute after his Cher doll. Ironically, he confused the real Cher for a drag queen when he met her in one episode.

Music

• Eminem's song "Stan" features Stan and Matthew Mitchell, two brothers who are Loony Fans of Eminem. Stan eventually goes insane from perceived abandonment by his idol and kills himself along with his girlfriend and unborn child; over a decade later, the Sequel Song "Bad Guy" will detail a young adult Matthew getting revenge on Eminem for his part in his brother's death.
• Tyler, the Creator's "Colossus" is a Life Embellished account of Tyler getting hassled by a group of fans while trying to go on a ride at Six Flags. The fictionalised fans turn out to be Depraved Homosexuals who commit acts of sexualised self-harm while listening to Tyler's music.

Video Games

• Earthbound Beginnings: Teddy, one of five recruitable party members, has a "Favorite Thing" in the form of a book on Eikichi Yazawa (named "E. Yazawa" here), a Japanese rock musician and celebrity. According to the MOTHER Encyclopedia, Teddy received the book from Koyano, a second-generation Japanese member of the Bla-Bla gang; though he can't read Japanese (being an American in Ellay), Teddy came to admire the man. This may have influenced Teddy's decision to become a singer at the Live House at the end of the game.
• Saints Row: The Third: The Boss turns out to be a huge fan of Burt Reynolds, who appears As Himself in the position of Steelport's mayor. After meeting Reynolds for the first time, the Boss cannot stop gushing over it.

Web Animation

• Yo Mama: Lead host Brody Fox is a huge fan of Vin Diesel, to the point he fantasizes about him getting a high-five from his hero.

Web Comics

• Homestuck: John absolutely loves Nicolas Cage, especially in Con Air. When John's attitude toward the film changed for a short time, it became an indicator of a serious Cabin Fever. Vriska also fell for Cage thanks to John.

Web Videos

• Scott The Woz: The villain of "It's Awesome Baby" is a huge fan of Awesome Baby College Hoops, and by extension, Dick Vitale. This includes rebuilding the world such that existing establishments are named after Vitale, and when told Dick Vitale is behind him, despite recognizing the lie, checks anyway because he isn't willing to chance it.

Western Animation

• Archer: The titular Sterling Archer is a fan of Burt Reynolds, fawning over him before discovering that Burt Reynolds was dating his mother, much to his disgust.
• Arthur: Many guest stars appear as themselves in-universe. In "The Making of Arthur", all of Arthur's friends record videos to send in to Matt Damon so he can turn one of them into TV shows. When Damon shows up at Arthur's door, D.W. answers and excitedly says that he should make a show about her.
• Family Guy: Peter is a huge fan of KISS and is humiliated when it turns out Lois was just humoring him and doesn't actually know any of their music. Then it turns out she had sex with Gene Simmons before he was famous (and still using his real name, so she didn't even realize until she saw him out of makeup), and Peter's thrilled to have a "connection" with him.
• Johnny Bravo: Johnny is a huge fan of Farrah Fawcett, because "she's the only person in the world whose hair is prettier than mine." When the Ink-Suit Actor Farrah visits Johnny's neighbor Suzie, he goes to absurd lengths to get a chance to meet her. Farrah also voiced a minor character: an elderly lady with the hots for Farrah's bodyguard.
• Molly of Denali: The characters are fans of such people as Ellen Paneok (the first Alaska Native woman pilot), and Sharon and Shirley Firth (the first female Indigenous athletes to compete for Canada in the Winter Olympic Games).
• Ready Jet Go!: In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Sean geeks out when the titular Ellen Ochoa first arrives at the treehouse, and he even addresses her with a Full-Name Basis out of respect. In that same episode, Dr. Bergs is also shown to be a fan of Ellen, and he even has a mug with her face on it.
• The Simpsons:
  • Patty and Selma are huge fans of the original MacGyver, so when they meet his actor, Richard Dean Anderson, they act like a Loony Fan, going so far as to kidnap him.
  • Ned Flanders is a big fan of The Beatles, partially because of their "Bigger Than Jesus" comment. Marge was a fan of Ringo Starr in particular when younger, making various paintings of him and even sending him one.
• Scooby-Doo:
  • A frequent trope of The New Scooby-Doo Movies and Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, since many of the weekly guest stars were Ink-Suit Actors that Mystery Inc. would express admiration for. These included The Three Stooges, Dick Van Dyke, and Sonny & Cher for the former show; and Sia, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and "Weird Al" Yankovic for the latter.
  • Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery features the members of KISS, whom the gang meet while going to their concert at the fictional KISS World amusement park.
  • KISS also appeared in the What's New, Scooby-Doo? Halloween episode, where Scooby and Shaggy are desperate to solve the mystery in time to get to their concert.
  • Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost guest-starred celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Giada DeLaurentis, whom the gang (especially Shaggy and Scooby) admire. Giada is in fact a fan of Shaggy and Scooby's as well, as she asked them to give a speech about sandwich building architecture. In addition, Bobby happens to be Fred Jones's uncle in this story, just to make the fictional/real person distinction weirder.
• Super Mario Bros.: In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Kootie Pie Rocks", both Kootie Pie and Princess Toadstool are fans of Milli Vanilli, the former to the point where her father kidnaps them to perform for her.
• Much of the supplemental material for the VBirds shorts involves the titular group namedropping various real-life celebrities. One news article was dedicated to Boom having a crush on Orlando Bloom, and a few others revolve around the girls as a whole having affections for then-current British and Irish boy bands like One True Voice, Busted, D-Side, and Phixx.

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