The face of #winning.

A look into the world of gossip bloggers and their growing influence

By: Arielle Schwarz

On Friday April 8, 2011, the celebrity media caught wind that 89-year-old Betty White had lashed out at Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, calling them “terribly ungrateful” and “unprofessional” for their repeated public bad behavior. Lohan quickly released a statement criticizing White’s comments. A decade ago this inconsequential Hollywood war of words should have ended at that, perhaps a short Page Six item. Thanks to the Internet platform, however, popular celebrity bloggers jumped into the fray to spew venom at Lohan for her rebuttal.

One such celebrity blogger, Michael K of DListed, wrote: “Why the hell did LiLo [media nickname for Lohan] even waste a breath she could’ve used to puff on a Red? Betty White is right. End of story. Shut those silicone anal glands on your mouth and take it.” Ouch.

The Internet has provided Michael K, and other famous names in the blogosphere, with a platform to assault Hollywood all-stars and give their not-so-humble opinions about celebrity comings and goings. Before the web era, fans hungry for their celebrity fix or to read the latest scandal had to wait until the weekly tabloids hit the stands hear what ‘really’ happened. But these days, the internet has made the transmission of information instantaneous. And celebrity gossip is no exception. It seems people have an insatiable appetite for the hundreds of gossip blogs out there.  Two of the top sites, Perez Hilton and TMZ, receive up to 4 million hits per day, and it has been reported that Perez garnered close to 14 million unique visitors the day after the 2009 Academy Awards when his fame was beginning to skyrocket.

Bloggers have become self-appointed cultural commentators, and several have developed a following simply based on their reputations for being nasty. Michael K, one of the nastiest, wasn’t finished with Lohan and Sheen when he added, “Betty White is saying what Charlie’s and LiLo’s family should’ve said a long ass time ago. If only Betty could stick her fist up White Oprah’s [media nickname for Dina Lohan, Lindsay’s mom] ass and do the talking for that delusional crazy from now on.” Okay!

About six or seven years ago when they first started to emerge, it may have been tempting to write these gossip blogs off as virtual garbage, but with growing hordes of readers, their cultural influence becomes harder to deny. Stories such as the Betty White one on DListed garner hundreds of comments, while big news stories, such as the death of Michael Jackson, can elicit thousands. The bloggers themselves become celebrities and tabloid magazines are now behind the curve when it comes to breaking events. What started as a few snarky comments has transformed into a viral subculture.

Celebrity blogs are a platform not just for bloggers but they’re the virtual water cooler for anyone with something to say about celebrities and their affairs, says Erin Ann Meyers, who received her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and wrote her dissertation on the topic. The celeb blog readers are often students and office workers who spend most of their time behind a computer anyway. So surfing the Web to comment on celebs becomes, she says, “A distraction or a fun way to take a break because there’s always something new. It’s not just reporting, they’re putting a spin on it, and people want to know what Perez has to say. Audiences are attracted to what reinforces their own beliefs. Blogs are in conversation.”

Another element of blogs, unlike magazines or TV shows like Access Hollywood or Extra, is that the audience becomes the producers of content too. Commenters on sites such as DListed get to know each other and form a community, so much so that when frequent commenters disappear for a few days, other commenters notice. Erin Ann Meyers says blogs “play a really important role in how the media is changing because people engage on those sites with the comment section and linking elsewhere. All three parts are blended, with images and text, the blogger’s commentary, and the audience as a layer.”  Magazines are left to play catch up days after the events.

A Battle Between Blondes

Gossip bloggers make no claim to objectivity, an important fact when considering the scope of their influence. Meyers believes they are not journalists, rather, she says that they are commentators, a central distinction to make. In light of recent suicides in high schools and colleges blamed on bullying, the often hateful commentary on these sites could certainly seem to act as reinforcement that tearing people down is acceptable and even enjoyable. Meyers believes bloggers who like berating celebrities are reinforced by a mean-spirited audience. “Perez is mean and people like that. Bloggers are not creating the [bullying] problem. That is how people interact online. The distance of not being face to face with the person leads people to say things you wouldn’t say to their face.”

Many people find the commentary crude, even if it refers to public figures. Michael K creates monikers for famous people, including Lady Caca for Lady Gaga, Katherine Hag-el for Katherine Heigl, and Parasite Hilton for Paris Hilton. Perez Hilton was known to draw penises on celebrities’ faces and cocaine dripping from their mouths, as well as for outing famous males he thought were gay. Many people attacked Hilton for being a bad influence after a slew of suicides in high schools and colleges, and he has since cleaned up his act. The nasty drawings have stopped and he has since made amends with many of his former enemies, but the motives behind his change of heart are debatable. Perhaps he was afraid of losing readers, or maybe he really did see the error of his ways. Either way, Hilton is a virtual force to be reckoned with.

Meyers thinks people have always had a cultural obsession with celebrity and their private lives.  The Internet makes it easier and more acceptable for readers to gossip and pass judgment on celebrities, such as Britney Spears’s mothering skills. “We police their private lives to talk about social issues, such as motherhood or femininity. I would never say my friend is a bad mother because I know her but I won’t get in trouble because I don’t know Britney and she doesn’t know me.”

Do the stars deserve that kind of scrutiny? It depends who you ask. Kelli Burns, assistant professor at the University of South Florida and author of “Celeb 2.0: How Social Media Foster Our Fascination with Popular Culture” believes that seeing celebrities in a negative light makes us feel better about our own lives. “We revel in seeing celebrities at their worst–without makeup, looking fat in their bathing suits, or getting mad about something,” she says.

On the other hand, she believes many celebrities love the attention, even if they act bothered by it, noting how paparazzi shots are often set up by publicists. Kim Kardashian, Heidi Montag, and Britney Spears are rumored to have arranged “candid” photos of themselves to stir up paparazzi and publicity.  However, there is a line that gets crossed, according to Burns, such as recent paparazzi photos of Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn jogging in which Johansson’s belly pooch became the subject of blogger scrutiny. “I do feel that photos of celebrities coming out of Starbucks, leaving the gym, or walking their kids to school are not news,” says Burns.  “Celebrities should be given some space to live their personal lives. [They] do take a lot of criticism on blogs, and this is sometimes dished out unfairly.” Johansson was criticized for what appeared to be early signs of pregnancy, which her reps had to deny after the blogs made it a story.

How do bloggers, such as Michael K and Perez Hilton, get away with the venomous things they say? Victoria Cioppettini, a New Jersey-based attorney,  studied the legal questions surrounding gossip bloggers.  In “Modern Difficulties in Resolving Old Problems: Does the Actual Malice Standard Apply to Blogs?” published in the Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Cioppettini explains that there is a fine line that bloggers have to be careful of crossing. “Bloggers potentially open themselves up to defamation (slander or libel) lawsuits by posting negative comments on the Internet.  However, one of the issues that will determine if the blogger will be found liable is whether the information is a pure opinion or factual in nature, which can be a fuzzy line.  Pure opinions may be protected as free speech under the First Amendment while the publication of false facts about another may lead to legal liability for defamation.”

For example, she cites an incident where California DJ and pseudo-celeb Samantha Ronson (Lindsay Lohan’s former gal pal) sued Perez Hilton in 2007 when he claimed Ronson had planted cocaine in Lohan’s vehicle. Hilton defended his free speech rights and won the case. Hilton is often involved in legal entanglements due to controversial and malicious items he reports as fact.

In her study, Cioppettini notes that in newspapers or magazines, stories are either presented as fact or marked ‘Op/Ed’ and a clear line is drawn. Bloggers often do not draw these lines, reporting stories with a skewed bias or opinion. She writes, “Many times, the forum appears to be a personal journal but also ‘reports’ on stories as if they are true, when in fact they may be gossip, rumor, hearsay or pure conjecture. Because of this intermingling of fact, opinion and accusation, it is difficult for the reader to distinguish pure opinion from fact and opinion implying false facts. It is in this gray area where problems concerning whether to treat information contained in blogs as defamatory runs into significant legal obstacles.”

Why would someone want to blog about celebrities? Experts agree they usually have a strong interest in celebrity culture and want to write about them, and blogging is the easiest and cheapest way to do so. Professor Burns argues that they wanted to work as celebrity journalists and blogging builds writing samples. “Blogging allows for a freedom of expression that would not be tolerated in traditional journalism. You often find that bloggers can get away with being snarkier and somewhat disrespectful to celebrities.  Traditional entertainment outlets depend on publicists to provide information about celebrities, but bloggers usually don’t need to pander to celebrities and their publicists to get their stories,” she says.

The blogs don’t reserve their smack downs solely for Lindsay Lohan and other Hollywood train wrecks.  Entrepreneur and presidential candidate Donald Trump found that out when he created a media frenzy this spring demanding to see President Obama’s long-form birth certificate. Obama showed the goods, and celebrity bloggers took to their laptops to spew their thoughts.

Rebecca M. Leib, one of the head bloggers for Girls Talkin Smack, trumped Trump by saying: “Trump is a dirty piece of sh*te, and should know it. He may not like Affirmative Action, but he’s got to accept the fact that it helps ease racism in academia, and supports people like Obama becoming such a gigantic and inspiring influence on the United States. So, you know, go host a reality show, Trump, and stay out of important matters, please. Adults are talking.”

Though Girls Talkin Smack doesn’t rank to Perez-level popularity, its punchy writing style holds its own, leaving no celebrity stone unturned. Leib, 27, has been blogging at Girls Talkin Smack for almost nine months. She went to grad school at the University of Chicago for art writing and fostered a fierce love of comedy, training at The Second City comedy school in Chicago.

Eventually, Leib ended up in Los Angeles and realized there was high demand for pop culture writing with, as she puts it, “a strong comedic and journalistic voice.” She’s the perfect fit for Girls Talkin Smack, and says they liked her style of humor and snappy writing. She enjoys blogging because it’s “lenient,” adding “the pop culture stuff has to have an acidic tone, and they give me the freedom to say what I want.”

So what’s the typical day in the life of a blogger like? Even being able to work from home in her pajamas, blogging is a lot of work, she admits, getting up  “ridiculously early” to start writing jokes, and  expected to be available non-stop.

“I tell people it’s a full-time job plus. I’m always working and I’m never working. I’m home in my pajamas writing jokes, but I’m really writing jokes in my pajamas at home. It’s a strange lifestyle. My parents are both attorneys, they’re both very traditional, professional 9-5 types, and they don’t get it.”

If something big happens in Hollywood, she has an obligation to cover it. She’s in constant correspondence with her editors and publishers via email.

Similar to other ardent celebrity followers, there are people and topics that Leib enjoys covering and those she hates covering. She would prefer to write about more off-beat topics than celebrities, but finds it easy to write jokes about super-exposed celebrities, such as Lindsay Lohan. “It’s easy to do those things, and it is fun because we’re so obsessed with them.” However, she admits she is sick of writing about Charlie Sheen. Duly noted.

Many experts say bloggers feel no responsibility to the poisonous messages they’re sending, but Leib disagrees. She believes there’s “a line you just shouldn’t cross.” For example, she will not write about someone sick with cancer or who has recently had a miscarriage. She says, “Rehab is an interesting case because it’s like ‘oh, another celebrity is going to rehab’ and we tend to forget people actually have serious addiction problems but we don’t feel as bad because they put themselves in these situations.” She says she does self-edit and is conscientious of what she puts out there.

Ronnie Karam, head blogger of TVgasm, a blog dedicated to TV recaps and commentary, says that the bloggers on his site were actually the bullied kids in high school, and does not feel that poking fun of celebrities is a bad thing, provided that it is lighthearted enough. He agrees it is all in good fun.

As for the future of celebrity media, Rebecca Leib believes the tabloids “will keep eroding until they are strictly online” with no print distribution because people now need and expect the instant gratification of a constant feed. Ronnie Karam agrees, adding, “Once you start reading everything on your phone, you don’t go back” and thinks the Internet is a great forum for people to express themselves. “People think writing is going to disappear, but now the entire world is expressing themselves in some way. There’s more being written now, and I think [the shift] is a good thing. The Internet is still very Wild West. There are no rules right now. You never know what will make money.”

Trent Vanegas, founder of Pink is the New Blog, was one of the first players in the blogging game, founding his site in 2004. Like Perez Hilton, Michael K, and TMZ, Vanegas’s followers are fiercely loyal and have helped him secure a top spot in the blogosphere. He says he got into blogging by accident before blogs were common and his love of everything pop culture made it easy for him to become a daily commentator. He credits excellent timing to his success. “I was an early adopter.  My blog found an audience when there weren’t many blogs out there.  If I were to start my blog now, exactly as it is at this time, I guarantee you it wouldn’t have the same impact that it did when I launched it.   I guess it was really a matter of right time, right place.”

Vanegas agrees with Rebecca Leib in that bloggers are not exempt from standards of respect in their commentary. He says, “I think we, as people, have a responsibility to respect one another… bloggers, journalists, celebrities, students, what have you. The rules of common decency do not change because someone can hide behind a blog. I personally try to have fun with celebrity, poking fun in a comedic way.’”

Like Leib and Karam, Vanegas enjoys working from home but thinks the immediacy and constant nature of blogging is difficult to manage. But all in all, he loves it. “I just love the craziness of celebrity. Celebs are people just like us, they make mistakes, they wear the wrong things sometimes, and they look silly and screw up sometimes. As I said, I try to keep things fun.”

As long as Lindsay Lohan has court dates, as long as Charlie Sheen keeps winning, and as long as Britney Spears is, well, Britney Spears, celebrity bloggers will keep criticizing them. Celebrity media may be changing, but celebrities are as crazy as ever, and audiences keep demanding more. It’s an old game with new rules and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Sorry LiLo!

The post The Dish on the New Queens of All Media appeared first on Fameology.net.

Frienemies Perez Hilton and LiLo!

The Top Gossip Sites in the Fame Game

By: Arielle Schwarz

While there are dozens of gossip blogs, some blogs have found a formula that gains them loyal followers and strong reputations, while others fizzle out after just a few months. At the end of 2009, Viralogy, a site dedicated to the business of blogs, came out with a list of their top blogs. The site noted: “From Perez Hilton to TMZ, these blogs have become household names thanks to their up to the minute breaking news. While many may see these as just gossip, to others it’s more than that: it’s news. Similar to large news networks like CNN and Fox, these blogs have become the top source for all news related to celebrities and their lives.”

Their list is based on three categories: Blog Site Traffic, Technorati Authority, and the number of linkbacks that the site had. With over six million viewers in a regular month, TMZ held the top title. Gawker and Perez Hilton, numbers two and three respectively, each had around 2.5 million visitors, and DListed came in sixth on the list with almost 600,000 viewers.

As for today, Technorati lists Just Jared as the top celebrity blog (May 2011) currently, but lists TMZ as the number 6 blog out of every type of blog. That’s impressive, considering that The Huffington Post is number one. In Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere 2010” they reported that blogs continue to be a powerful force in the media world, as their viewership continues to grow with each year. Kudos to you, TMZ, for holding your own in a platform where readers are fickle and have so many choices available to them.

The post Top Celebrity Blogs appeared first on Fameology.net.

For fans of MTV’s “The Real World,” the show’s opening theme can be recited by memory. Each episode of the show’s now-25 seasons begins by introducing the cast members as they each say “This is the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house, work together and have their lives taped. To find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real: The Real World.”

The concept seems simple, throw some young people together in a house in a new city, from Seattle to Sydney, for a few months, have cameras follow their every move, and see what kinds of drama unfold.

Drama does indeed unfold on MTV’s longest-running series. Cast members deal with family issues, financial issues, romantic issues, illness—and it’s all filmed. In the process cast members are stripped of their privacy, and in many cases, their dignity. So why would someone want to put all of that out there for public consumption?

Brown posing with MTV chums Deena Nicole Cortese and Paul "DJ Pauly D" DelVecchio

Nick Brown, a 27-year-old Jamaica-native living in New Rochelle, N.Y., did just that in 2008 for the 20th season, “The Real World: Hollywood.” While many people might have reservations about becoming a reality show celebrity, Brown, an aspiring TV host, insists his goals were respectable.
“The show is a great social experiment,” he said recently as he chatted about his experience.

“[It has lasted so long because] people can relate to these people and their ‘characters’ and I never saw someone I fully related to on the show. So I thought, maybe I could do that and maybe people could relate to Nick.”

Brown was so determined to appear on Real World that he had auditioned three times previously and made it to the later rounds for season 19 in Sydney. He turned it down because he was attending the University of South Florida and worried if he moved to Australia he’d never finish college. “I was not about to forfeit four years of school. Graduating college is a scary time; you don’t know where you’re going.”

So he waited until late 2007 to film the show, what he says now was the right move. “I was a kid. ‘Hollywood’ gave me wheels to build a car on. I always knew I wanted to do it, I just needed to find the right time.”

Strikingly handsome, impeccably groomed and with a perfectly straight, glaringly white smile that complements his smooth dark skin, Brown seems made for TV. He’s polite, well-spoken, and carries himself confidently. MTV cast him, he says because, “I’m a people pleaser, and they look for conflicts. I like people to like me but not everyone’s going to like you. I’m outgoing and charming, but let’s face it; everyone on the show is a little crazy.”

As for actually being on camera, Brown says what audiences saw was genuine, at least from him. “You get used to it. It’s overwhelming at first, but if you’re constantly making an effort to tone it down, it becomes so much harder, so you’re just like, fuck it.” Brown says he “fell in love on a nightly basis” and brought many girls home, to the dismay of his female roommates.

It is true, every room in the “Real World” house has cameras and they’re on all the time. “Yeah, you have sex on camera. I did. They hear you taking a poop. There’s always cameras, always. But they only have a camera crew come out when something big is about to happen. We did not speak to the crew at all and only got to know them on the last day of filming.” He says, honestly, “I was interested in having sex with as many girls as possible. You put out whatever you put out there. They don’t make any of it up. They only end up showing like 1 percent of what was filmed, but you did it. They showed Sarah and I going at it constantly, which just wasn’t true… but they have a story to tell and they’re telling it as fast as possible.”

Unlike many reality show stars, Brown didn’t change his ways for the cameras. His friend of 12 years, Sofia Holohan, believes this is truly part of his character. She says, “He was picked because his status as a ‘lady lover’ is good for TV. He’s a people person, known for his personality. He didn’t change for the cameras.” His best friend of five years, Alex Staropoli, adds, “A lot of people go on these shows and then claim they weren’t portrayed the right way but what you saw was who he is. He’s always lived his life as if he’s being filmed. He’s authentic in that he just doesn’t give a shit, just there to have a good time, so he appealed [to audiences] in that regard.”

He says his dad found the ordeal to be an embarrassment. “My dad was never big on the drinking, but I was 22 or 23, and that’s what kids do. I was a normal kid– it was just taped.”

Now almost three years later, Brown is still riding the wave of publicity from the show and is trying to build a career as a TV host. His Facebook page acts as his personal publicist. His current profile picture (which changes frequently) shows an unidentified woman straddling his bare back. His other photos show him crooning with various scantily-clad women and are captioned “it’s two-chick Tuesday.” His photo albums show him cavorting with MTV personalities, including Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. It would seem that Brown is quite the playboy, but in person, this image does not come across. He comes across as sweet, even shy at times.

He insists he never wanted to be an actor or singer and that he knew about the show’s less-than-favorable reputation before filming. “I’m doing something risky, very risky. I’m from Jamaica where people go to school and then get a job. This entertainment thing just doesn’t exist there. There is no artistry, it’s unheard of. You just go to school.” His Jamaican roots and conservative background fueled his desire to be a part of the entertainment industry and be on the show.

Living in Hollywood was “surreal” for Brown. He’d never been there before being on the show and would live there again if he could afford it. Upon arriving home in New York, he realized that he was a familiar face. “None of it equals fame. But it’s cool being known. People want to buy you a drink or approach you while you’re at a restaurant. I still get that.” The show does not equal instant financial success either. He says that MTV did not pay for their nights out and that many of them held part-time jobs out in Hollywood to support themselves. They got a small weekly salary of a few hundred dollars and a free place to live, but he says he was “pretty broke.”

He has since appeared on two “Real World/Road Rules” Challenges and hosted for MTV’s Spring Break programming. “Ultimately, if I got my own show, I’d be happy and it would be like, ‘I’ve made it.’ I’d be happy to host a show. I have a project going on called ‘Curbside Critic’ that I edit, produce, and write online. I’ve done three or four episodes.” “Curbside” allows him to act as TV host a la Mario Lopez in which he picks a topics ranging from relationships to politics and interviews people on the street to get their feedback. Topics range from relationships to politics. Currently, Brown just returned from Las Vegas where he attended the premiere party for “The Real World: Las Vegas,” the show’s 25th season, and to host MTV’s 2011 Spring Break shows.

Brown claims he has no regrets about his time on reality television. He says he went on the show for a good reason, to “represent a niche for other people to relate to.” Reality TV hasn’t changed him. “I’m just as arrogant and boisterous as I always was. A person with a lot of money doesn’t act differently if they win the lottery.”

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