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

McCartney 'revisits' Beatles at gigs
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:03:13 -0000
Sir Paul McCartney says his gigs help him bring back memories of other Beatles members and his late wife Linda.
Rihanna 'humiliated' by nude shots
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:03:41 -0000
Rihanna says the leak of naked pictures she had taken for an ex-boyfriend was "the worst thing that could possibly ever happen".
Debelle booed by Take That fans
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:52:38 -0000
Mercury winner Speech Debelle is booed off stage by Take That fans as she tries to rap one of their songs.

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