A-list

A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry or to major recording artists, major international sports stars or other occupations such as the most successful film directors, certain high-profile media and entertainment moguls and the most notable international TV broadcasters.

The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood. James Ulmer has also developed a Hot List of directors.

The Ulmer scale categorizes the lists into A+, A, B+, B, C, and D listings.

In popular usage outside the film industry, an "A-list celebrity" simply refers to any person with an admired or desirable social status. In recent times, the term has given rise to any person, regardless of profession, in the limelight. Even socialites with popular press coverage and elite associations have been termed as "A-list" celebrities. Similarly, less popular persons and current teen idols are referred to as "B-list" – and the ones with lesser fame "C-list".Entertainment Weekly interpreted C-list celebrity as "that guy (or sometimes that girl), the easy-to-remember but hard-to-name character actor".

"D-list" is often used to describe persons whose celebrity is so obscure that they are generally only known for appearances as so-called celebrities on panel game shows and reality television. Kathy Griffin, a U.S. comedian who became widely known for her frequent appearances on such programs, used the term in a tongue-in-cheek manner for her 2005 TV special The D-List and her 2005 TV series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. It is also the lowest rating used by U.S. journalist James Ulmer for his Ulmer Scale which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide. Other successive letters of the alphabet beyond D, such as "E-list" or "Z-list", are sometimes used for exaggeration or comic effect but effectively have the same meaning as D-list.

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Wikipedia