| Starsuckers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Chris Atkins |
| Produced by | Felicity Leabeater, Christina Slater |
Release date |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Starsuckers is a 2009 British documentary film aiming to expose the "shams and deceit involved in creating a pernicious celebrity culture".
Directed by Chris Atkins, director of the 2007 documentary Taking Liberties, it shows the production team planting a variety of celebrity-related stories in the UK media, such as a claim that the singer Avril Lavigne had been seen asleep in a nightclub. A variety of tabloid newspapers accepted the stories without corroboration or evidence.[1]
The film launched as part of the British Film Institute's 53rd Film Festival. Thirty minutes of footage from the film were shown to the Leveson Inquiry as part of the evidence presented by the film's director, Chris Atkins.[2]
- ^ Lewis, Paul (14 October 2009). "Starsuckers celebrity hoax dupes tabloids". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
- ^ O'Carroll, Lisa; Halliday, Josh (6 December 2011). "Leveson inquiry: Chris Atkins, David Leigh, Charlotte Harris - live". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2011.