Posts Tagged: ‘celebrities’

But before there was Bragelina, TomKat and the rest, there was Dickenliz. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were such a captivating celebrity couple that they earned a nickname before all the others.

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Many of us have no way to understand this, but there are millions of people in the U.S. and around the world who, for some reason, worship celebrities. This photo is indicative of how extreme the problem can get: A fan cries People magazine, Us magazine, the Tabloids, TMZ, etc. are also indicative. One of [...]

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Since Thursday, The New York Times has been running an article in its Style section about “Star Power in the White House.” Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a good share of articles about volunteerism cross my desk, including one titled How to Volunteer with the President of the United States. Actor Kalpen Modi — alias Kal Penn — could’ve written it. He didn’t (our talented HSW writer Chris Obenschain did), but he’s walking the talk, so to speak.

Modi put his acting career on hold to work for President Obama, for whom he actively campaigned last year. You’ve seen Modi’s acting chops in the Harold & Kumar movies, as well as “House” and “24.” Modi gave his “House” producer early notice that if Obama were elected, he’d be leaving the show. He kept his word and now works in the Office of Public Engagement.

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Nellie Andreeva of The Hollywood Reporter posted an interesting (but brief) story of a television series in the planning stages. The new show would leverage Twitter, making the service the crux of the show. When I first heard the idea, I thought we might see a choose-your-own-adventure style episodic program. That’s not what the show’s creator has in mind, though.

Instead, novelist Amy Ephron wants to create a new reality TV series in which normal people compete by using Twitter to hunt down specific celebrities. While details are scarce, I imagine that the celebrities on the show will agree beforehand to be stalked by the contestants. Otherwise I foresee many lawsuits in Ephron’s future.

Is this a good idea? I’m not sure. I like seeing services such as Twitter used in creative ways but I’m not a huge fan of turning celebrities into prey. To me, it sounds like this show would turn into the celebrity version of “The Running Man” (the novella by Richard “Stephen King” Bachman, not the totally awesome Schwarzenegger film loosely based on the story). I can just imagine a panicked Ashton Kutcher running down the steps of a New York City subway station with dozens of contestants in hot pursuit, each clutching an iPhone running the Tweetie app.

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