As a fledgling writer of real person fiction myself, I cannot help but notice that celebrity fiction doesn't seem to be all that popular around here. Judging by number of posts in the form and general lack of discussion, it feels like celeb stories are the poor relation in the fan fiction family. I even remember one of the mods here (it doesn't matter which one) mentioning he or she doesn't like dealing with celeb stories.
So, given that -- assuming it is true, and not just my fevered imagination -- why do you, gentle writer, continue to employ celebrities as characters in your stories? Surely it is easy enough to change your protagonist's name to something fictional. So why do it?
I'll kick off the answering with a couple of reasons of my own:
1. It's a tribute. I only write about celebrities I like/admire, so to me inserting her into a story is a kind of tribute. I never want anything unfortunate to happen to my faves in real life; this all just my imagination working overtime for people I really like. And I consider it a compliment, no matter what happens in the story.
2. The stars are well-known. When I write about, say, Vanessa Hudgens, everyone knows what she loiks like, so every reader is picturing her in the same way (within reason) in their minds while reading, so that, to me, suggest more of a communnity experience and shared bond and sense of community among readers. It's almost like we're seeing the story in our heads the same way. We all give the Vanessa in the story the same look (based on the story's description) and we hear her voice the same way. I think it helps, anyway.
So that's me -- but I'm sure everyone has reasons of his/her own, and I'm interested in hearing what you have to say!