About

Julie Lobalzo Wright holds a BA in English with an emphasis on Film Studies from the University of Colorado at Denver, MA in Film Studies from Queen Mary, University of London, and a PhD in Film Studies from King’s College London. Her PhD examined crossover stardom, particularly male popular music stars in British and American cinema. Julie was the co-convenor of the BAFTSS Performance and Stardom Special Interest GroupLink opens in a new window for many years and was the co-organiser of the Reinvigorating and Reinventing Stardom symposiumLink opens in a new window that took place at Warwick on 2 November 2019.

Research Interests

Her main research interests are in film and television stardom, musicals, multimedia stardom, Hollywood/American cinema, British cinema and television, and animation.

Currently working on: a book chapter about Alan Partridge/Steve Coogan as stars (co-authored); a journal article about Goldie Hawn's producing work in the 1970s and 1980s; and a monograph about Barbra Streisand's agency, artistry, and authorship (proposal submitted) [Listen to Julie talk about her Streisand research on The Warwick History Hour, produced by Warwick's History Department- click here to listen to the podcastLink opens in a new window]

Supervision

She is interested in supervising PhDs that merge with many of her research interests including stardom, performance, celebrity, popular music and cinema, musicals, Hollywood/American cinema, British cinema, and animation. And, especially, interested in representation and the subjects noted above.

Publications

Books

• Crossover Stardom: Popular Male Music Stars in American CinemaLink opens in a new window, (Bloomsbury, 2017; paperback, 2019).
• Lasting Screen Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that EndureLink opens in a new window, co-edited with Lucy Bolton (Palgrave, 2016) [Winner of the BAFTSS award for Best Edited Collection in 2017].

Articles

• 'Animation and the Star Body', Film/Philosophy, Vol. 23, issue 2 (Special Issue on Stardom and Philosophy, ed. Lucy Bolton), pp. 194-211 (2019).
  
• ‘The all-American golden boy: Robert Redford, blond hair and masculinity in Hollywood’, Celebrity Studies, Vol. 7, Issue 1 (Special Issue: Blondes, ed. Ginette Vincendeau) (2016).

Chapters

• “‘We All Get Our Jollies One Way or Another’: The Perversity and Pleasure of Christopher Lee in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), James Bond Will Return: Critical Perspectives on the 007 Film Franchise (Columbia University Press, 2024).

• “‘I’m not haunted by Annie Hall. I’m happy to be Annie Hall”: the Tangled Relationship Between Annie and Diane’ in Remembering Annie Hall, edited by Jonathan Ellis and Ana María Sanchez-Arce (Bloomsbury, 2023).
• “‘The Same Story Told Over and Over’: The Mythology of Stardom in the Musical A Star is Born Films” in The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical, Edited by Dominic McHugh (Oxford, 2022).
• "'This is a F**king Business: The Concert Show and Tour in 1970s Hollywood Fiction Films" in Mapping the Rockumentary: Images of Sound and Fury, edited by Scott MacKenzie and Gunnar Iversen (Edinburgh University Press, 2021).
• “The Boy Kept Swinging: David Bowie, Music Video, and the Star Image” in Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media, edited by Michael Goddard, Kirsty Fairclough-Issacs, Gina Arnold and Danny Cookney (Bloomsbury, 2017).
• "From Boy N the Hood to Hollywood Mogul: Ice Cube’s Lasting Stardom in Contemporary Hollywood" in Lasting Screen Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure, edited by Lucy Bolton and Julie Lobalzo Wright (Palgrave, 2016).
• “David Bowie is the Extraordinary Rock Star as Film Star” in David Bowie: Critical Perspectives, edited by Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and Martin Power (Routledge, 2014).
• “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 60s: The Opposing Gazes of Woodstock and Gimme Shelter” in The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop, edited by Benjamin Halligan, Kirsty Fairclough-Issacs and Rob Edgar (Routledge, 2013).

Reviews

• Book reviews have appeared in: Screen, Women’s History Review, NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, The Journal of British Cinema and Television, Journal of British Cinema and Television, Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television, The Journal of Popular Culture.
• Provided peer reviews for: Bloomsbury, Edinburgh University Press, Columbia University Press, Routledge, University of Mississippi Press; Celebrity Studies, Film Comment, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Open Screens, New Review of Film and Television Studies.

Online

• Written for The Conversation and Viewfinder (The British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council).

Selection of Conference Papers and Talks

• 'Funny Girl/Lady: Barbra as Comedienne,' Critical Barbra: Perspectives on Barbra Streisand First Jewish Global Superstar, Jewish Museum and Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, 14-16 December 2023.

• 'From Dumb Blonde to Hollywood Mogul: Re-Examining Goldie Hawn as a Star-Filmmaker,' Doing Women’s Film and Television History VI: Changing Streams and Channels, University of Sussex, 14-16 June 2023.

• '"Hey, now, You're an all-star"?: Mike Myers and Shrek as Stars and Characters,' Two Decades of Shrek, Middlesex University, 13 November 2021.
• 'Nothing's Impossible: Barbra and Goldie as Star Filmmakers', BAFTSS, University of Southampton, 7-9 April 2021.

• ‘The Self-Authored Star Image: Kirk Douglas’ Real Life and Hollywood Legacy’, SCMS, Toronto, Canada, 14-18 March 2018.

• ‘“I’m the Song”: Bing Crosby’s Body in Film’, NECS Conference, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, 29 June- 1 July 2017.
• ‘Under the Cherry Moon: Sexuality, Race and Hollywood in “A Film by Prince”’, Purple Reign: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Life and Legacy of Prince’, University of Salford, 24-26 May 2017.
• ‘Easy Come, Easy Go: Elvis Presley and Musical Classification’, BAFTSS Conference at the University of Bristol, 20-21 April 2017.
• “Will Smith’s Peter Pan Syndrome,” Celebrity Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, 19-21 June 2014.
• “The Rolling Stones’ British and American Identity,” Mad Dogs and ‘Englishness’: Popular Music and English Identities at St. Mary’s University College, 20-21 June 2013.
• “The Crossover: Why Popular Music Stardom and Film Stardom are Often at Odds With One Another,” Revisiting Star Studies at Newcastle University, 12-14 June 2013.
• “All These Things That I’ve Done”: Justin Timberlake, The Killers and Southland Tales,” The Afterlife of the Film Song Symposium at the University of Bristol, 8 December 2012.
• “The Extraordinary Rock Star as Film Star: David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth,” A Strange Fascination?: A Symposium on David Bowie at the University of Limerick, 26-27 October 2012.
• “Romance, Masculinity and the Star Image: The Work of Leonardo DiCaprio.” Film and Media 2012 at the Institute of Education, University of London, 22-24 June 2012.
• “Tougher Than Leather: Run-DMC, Blaxploitation and Hip Hop Cinema.” The Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference in Boston, MA, 11-14 April 2012.

Public Engagement

• ‘Becoming the Star Auteur,’ part of the Season on Streisand, JW3 (Jewish Community Centre London), 17 April 2024.
• ‘Building the Star Image,’ part of the Season on Streisand, JW3 (Jewish Community Centre London), 10 April 2024.

• 'Something Old, Something New: Hollywood Weddings & Jewels', part of the Jewels of Love, Romance and Eternity Online Course, V&A Museum, 17 February 2023.
• Panelist on 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road,' Part of the LFF, BFI, 8 October 2022.
• Panelist on 'Judy Garland: 20th Century Icon,' Part of the Judy Garland season, BFI, 1 June 2022.
• Co-organiser of the "Hollywood Musical Stars" Study Day, BFI, 26 October 2019
• Panelist on 'Kubrick and Masculinity', BFI, 15 May 2019
• Panelist on 'The Seven Faces of Bond', Edinburgh Spy Week, 9 April 2019
• Co-organiser of the student-run film festival, Pushing Boundaries: 1960s British Cinema and its Pioneering Stars, at the Warwick Arts Centre on Sunday 29 April 2018 (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/film/news/eventsarchive/pushingboundaries)
• 'Glamour, Excess, and Transformation: Jewellery in Hollywood Cinema', part of the Love and Desire in Gems and Jewels Study Day, V&A Museum, 20 January 2018
• ‘An Introduction to Analysing Film’ Masterclass, Warwick Arts Centre, 12 August 2017
• ‘In Conversation: Lasting Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure’, 9 June 2016. With Lucy Bolton and guests at the National Portrait Gallery
• ‘Kirk Douglas: The Movies, The Muscles, The Dimple’, 19 September 2016. Part of the Kirk Douglas Season at the British Film Institute
• Appeared on TRT World, BBC Radio Coventry/Warwickshire, BBC Radio Scotland, CGTn Europe, News Talk 'Talking History', Monocole 24 Radio ('Sunday Brunch')

Teaching

I have taught on many modules that examined stardom and performance, film history, British cinema, Hollywood as an industry, animation and female film directors. At Warwick, I have convened and/or taught the first year modules Film and TV Analysis and Visual Cultures; second year module National Cinemas (British cinema); and second/third year modules Film and Television Stardom and The Art of Animation; in addition to the (former) outside module Discovering Cinema and current outside module, Film History and Methods; and the MA Core module, Screen Cultures and Methods.