We don't seem to have any heroes outside of those superficial categories. Sports, of course, are part of our dominant archetype, which is the Warrior. Particularly in the Olympics you see the veneration of the person who can achieve excellence. Sports figures in some way do that in a clear way. In the business world and our personal lives we may do it in a less clear way.
Entertainment is almost compensatory.
Americans work so hard and are so achievement-orientated that we have a veneration for what we miss a lot of the time. So we love our entertainers because they are out there having fun and making us have fun. It is the balance that we need. So we are willing to pay a lot for it, and we admire those people greatly. Well actually, I think we do have leaders.