But he's too successful at it to be a poser. Now if he were to pretend to a deep knowledge of Russian ballet schools, then he would (I suspect) be a poseur. I guess, to me, a poser is a poseur with lower pretensions and therefor easier to detect. Robbie Williams 'lives up to his image' at times and that's subtly different.
I think too that a poser is trying to impress people with whom he is *not trying to fit in - he is either trying to give them the impression that no way could they fit in with him anymore, he has left them far behind, or he is trying to convince the uninitiated that he is a part of some scene to which, in fact, neither he nor they have the entrée.
I dunno, these are fine distinctions. Maybe they are only in my mind
. Maybe the real difference lies between the people who use the word poser and the poseurs who use the word poseur.
