professional celebrity

A person who is famous solely for being famous, like Paris Hilton, the Barbi Twins, Joey Lawrence, Cindy Margolis, Joe Piscopo, Regis Philbin, Ray Jay Johnson, Pia Zadora, Carson Daly, Scott Baio, Fabio, Pauly Shore, Yoko Ono, Brooke Shields, Rich Little, the Kardashians, and on and on and on...

The 1970s were perhaps the golden age of the professional celebrity. People who were marginally well-known a decade or more earlier could be found all over daytime television as regulars on game shows and talk shows, and on prime time as "special guest stars" on shows like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

Orson Bean, Charles Nelson Reilly, J. P. Morgan, Mr. Blackwell, Charo, Sonny Bono, Soupy Sales...