Peter Bart: YouTube Stars Like MrBeast Now Invited To Hollywood’s Exclusive Party, But 100M Followers Might Prove Better Company
09.12.2022 - 03:27
/ deadline.com
Holiday parties are usually a mix of people and purposes but hosts this year are intent on cross-pollinating the stars of film with those of Hollywood’s exo planets – YouTube and TikTok. So will Robert DeNiro enjoy trading secrets this year with PewDiePie? What will Leonardo Di Caprio confide to MrBeast or Liza Kushy or Bryan Lourd to FaZeApex?
Most Hollywood stars likely have never heard of Brian Awardis, but the 26 year old with 22 million YouTube followers drew lines around the block this week at FaZeClan’s sanctum sanctorum.
The credentials of these outliers, after all, are formidable. MrBeast — with 117 million followers — and fellow YouTuber Unspeakable reportedly made $54 million and $28.5 million respectively last year so why wouldn’t they mesh with film stars, who face fading income streams?
The superstars of YouTube like MrBeast or, more attractively like YuYu or Hudo, may not have garnered Oscar nominations or graduated from Julliard but they are heroic figures to up-and-comers like Adam Fine, who is climbing the rungs of online stardom. There’s a new world order in show business, which entails new sets of rules as well as new platforms.
I came upon Fine, not at a Hollywood party, but on a golf course with his clubs, camera and tri pod. It was a calm setting for reflection because Fine, like PewDiePie, is a busy YouTube entrepreneur.
Two years ago the 34-year-old software salesman was at death’s door with a diseased liver, his name sitting on a long transplant waiting list. His pledge: “If I ever got to the top of the list, I want to build not only a new life but a life worth living.”
Like many social media stars, Fine had no great expertise. “I’m not a gifted athlete,” he says. At 5 foot 6, he doesn’t boast