Innumerable references to an aristocrat hogging the headlines (9)
I believe the answer is:
countless
'innumerable' is the definition.
(I know that innumerable can be written as countless)
'aristocrat hogging the headlines' is the wordplay.
'aristocrat' becomes 'count' (count is a kind of aristocrat).
'hogging the headlines' becomes 'less' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'count'+'less'='COUNTLESS'
'references to an' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for countless that I've seen before include "not so important" , "enormous number" , "Very many" , "Legion seeming to be" , "Infinite" .)