Oliva Rota, MercèPérez, Óliver2019-02-112019Oliva M, Pérez-Latorre O. Celebrities also suffer from the economic crisis’: broke celebrities and neoliberal narratives from Spain’s Great Recession. Celebrity studies. 2010;11(2):237-56. DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2018.15575331939-2397http://hdl.handle.net/10230/36549During the years of the economic crisis, ‘broke celebrities’ attracted the attention of the Spanish media. The main aim of this paper is to analyse how these narratives of celebrities in bankruptcy fostered a neoliberal definition of the economic crisis and legitimised austerity policies. In these narratives, the crisis was represented as a social equaliser, affecting all social groups evenly; the causes of the crisis were individualised and celebrities were identified as the epitome of irresponsible citizens who have 'lived beyond their means'; and citizens were encouraged to do 'whatever it takes' to find a job. Nevertheless, our paper also shows how audiences contested some of these values in online comments, challenging the narratives conveyed by Spanish media.application/pdfeng© This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Celebrity Studies on 1 of Febraury 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/19392397.2018.1557533info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2018.1557533NeoliberalismAusterityBroke celebritiesGreat RecessionSchadenfreudeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess