I think only a very, very few ever become stars and celebrities by being self-proclaimed. I think some admittedly inflate their celebrity, after it's started in other ways, by self-proclamation, but (in spite of the potential - as always - to reference a very small number of exceptions, usually well known precisely because they're exceptions) the overall effect this has is typically pretty minimal.
How about Muhammad Ali, for e.g.?The one that comes to mind.Was not really a great boxer. Where is the limit betwenn self-proclamation and people`s perception?
In America? a country where pet rocks, beer cans and belt buckles become famous and people pay large sums for a rock, storage device and hold up your jeans, you asking about "celebrities"? We have so much easy throwaway money, if a pet rock can make millions, doesn't take much for some people. How many now are TV preachers? Get the free holy water, will cost you your phone number and home address and a hard salesperson who get commissions on the donations you give. I find it so flipping amusing that foreigners come here and they open businesses and people who born here filling out forms to get disability cause they gave up on themselves.
He did.Who`s proclaimed the great artists like Pollock or Malevich?Their works are just pure nonsense.