There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
My superstar today is Pope Francis. And no, I'm not joking! I love Pope Francis. He is, quite simply, 'da bomb diggity. I even have a bobblehead of him - not in jest but in admiration (he keeps company with my bobblehead Jesus, bobblehead St. Francis, bobblehead Mother Teresa, and Gandhi figurine). From his humility about living quarters to his desire to be with the people to his gentle touch on the infirmed this dude is, as Time Magazine said in 2013, the people's pope. And, as it turns out, not just Catholic people but people of all faiths - and no faith even. He even gave a surprise TED talk in 2017. Watch it here. 
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