I do wonder if all these announced celebrity appearances will be to the show’s detriment. Eventually its success could become driven mostly by audience expectations of who’ll be appearing on the show from week to week, and what potentially outrageous thing they’d be asked to do as either fictional characters on the series, or as themselves. 

It’s a bit of a circus now. But if it works, it works, right? I’m not in the show’s target audience, so what do I know? 

Adding to a growing list of famous faces who’ll appear during season 2 of Fox’s mega-hit primetime soap opera "Empire," Entertainment Weekly reports that Reverend Al Sharpton and fashion icon André Leon Talley have both signed up, apparently to play themselves, when the series returns on September 22. How much of them will we see? Will they be single episode appearances or will each have multi-episode story arcs? We don’t know with certainty yet; although they’ll likely be single episode flashes. I don’t think either gentleman has the time to commit to anything more. But the fact that Lee Daniels is able to attract them to the show is certainly a demonstration of his reach, or their desire to be a part of the carnival.

Sharpton and Talley join Marisa Tomei, Pitbull, Mariah Carey, Chris Rock, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland, Ludacris, Adam Rodriguez, Andre Royo, Tyra Ferrell, and whoever else I’m forgetting, and/or will be added before the new season of "Empire" begins, like Oprah Winfrey.