The Tyee has posted a link to a rather humorous look at modern day icons written by Mark Kingwell in Arts & Opinion:
TEN STEPS TO THE CREATION OF A MODERN MEDIA ICON
Here are the ten steps (my summary) :
1. Icon defined
2. the image requirements
3. the story
4. death
5. mourning
6. larger-than-life
7. Kitschification
8. the spin-offs
9. the retrospectives
10. the religious experience
Read and laugh and question.