Entertainment is a leisure activity consisting of an event and an audience that views the event and participates. This participation can be subtle, as in Theatres: Film, Opera or stageshows, or Orchestral symphony concerts wherein the applause due the performance or performing artists would be bad manners. In contrast, the sports entertainment industry feeds off audience participation— who can imagine the strange event attending a pro-wrestling bout, basketball or baseball game without cheering or booing the participants would experentially being happy.

The industry that provides entertainment is called the entertainment industry, and one distinction between what is meant by the term is the voluntary participation of the party being entertained, which may be passive (Opera) or active (Frantic shoot-em-up computer games) and the whole gamut of industry supported diversions in between (Baseball, Concerts, Football, Books, Television, film , striptease, and events like Karaoke).

Recreation, play, reading, and art appreciation may in some instances be confused with entertainment, but the difference is elementary—entertainments take two or more— even if one of the participants is a programmer for the obsolescent Amiga computer system who now happens to be deceased. Without the 'performance' of the artist and the participation of the viewer the event would and could not occur.

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BBC News | Entertainment | UK Edition

Children in Need hits £20.3m mark
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:10:39 -0000
The annual Children in Need show - which included a dance-off between BBC newsreaders and Britain's Got Talent winners Diversity - raises £20.3m.
Jackson glove sells for $350,000
Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:56:48 -0000
The glove worn by Michael Jackson for his first Moonwalk dance in 1983 sells at auction for $350,000 (£212,000).
Groves and Johnson leave Strictly
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:59:27 -0000
EastEnder Ricky Groves is voted off Strictly Come Dancing as Jade Johnson quits because of injury.
Midnight record for Twilight film
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:39:00 -0000
The new Twilight vampire movie took a record $26.3m (£15.9m) in midnight showings in North American, its studio says.
Lady Gaga joins royal gala show
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:35:11 -0000
Eccentric chart-topper Lady Gaga is to sing for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance at Blackpool's Opera House.
Oprah to end talk show
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:31:09 -0000
A tearful Oprah Winfrey announces her talk show will end in September 2011 after 25 years on the air.

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