Why the 'the'?

Shouldn't it be 'celebrity flamout is a Hollywood cliche' without the 'the'?
I mean you wouldn't say 'the celebrity failure' with a 'the'.

"The celebrity flameout is a Hollywood cliché"

It's on here: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/06/26/michael.jackson.spotlight/index.html

I think you can go either way:

"The celebrity flameout is a Hollywood cliché"

or

"Celebrity flameout is a Hollywood cliché"

The word "the" while not functionally necessary, sounds better in this context. Any time a cliche or (especially in cinema or literature) type of character is mentioned, "the" is placed in front.

Perhaps better, though, would have been to make a proper noun of the phrase to make it a specific kind of cliche: The Celebrity Flameout as opposed to other cliches such as The Hooker with the Heart of Gold or The Evil Genius.

There really isn't a particular grammatical reason for the need of these the's; it's just sort of film/writing lingo.