"The Fraley plaintiffs sued Facebook, alleging that its 'Sponsored Stories' feature, which displays ads on Facebook containing the names and pictures of users who have 'Liked' a product, violated California’s Right of Publicity statute. The statute forbids the commercial use of an individual’s name or likeness without consent. Integral to the plaintiffs’ claim was the assertion they had been injured because they were “celebrities” to their Facebook friends, such that their endorsements of the products in the Sponsored Stories held economic value—economic value that they were deprived of when Facebook published their Stories without their consent." -
Famous for Fifteen People (Stanford Law Review): Celebrity, Newsworthiness, and
Fraley v. Facebook (Citizen Media Law Project)
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective
on Feb 10, 2012 -
10 comments
Glee's Chris Colfer is writing a children's book. The Land of Stories, aimed at middle grade readers, will
come out next year. He joins
many other famous folks who have decided to write for younger readers.
Perez Hilton is doing one. Madonna's done
many. Even the "stars" of Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice
got in on the kidlit craze. Of course, many of these authors
don't actually write the books they publish. Even if/when they do, many readers find the results underwhelming.
"If you are looking for the next Beatrix Potter or Maurice Sendak, you will not find it here," claimed the Guardian. There are
exceptions, but it seems that for a lot of celebrities, literature for children has become merely another form of
brand extension. Author, Adam Rex has countered with "
An Open Letter to Everyone Who Thinks it Must be Easy, Writing Kid's Books" Or, as
EB White said, "You have to write up to children, not down..."
posted by cal71
on Jun 9, 2011 -
31 comments
In 2009, Jon Gosselin was offered $365,000 for interviews: how reality stars, celebrity parents and rehab workers
make money selling gossip to celebrity websites and TV shows.
posted by Georgina
on May 23, 2011 -
38 comments
Deadspin tells
the story of the unlikely friendship between Kendrick Perkins of the Oklahoma City Thunder and two fans.
posted by reenum
on Apr 22, 2011 -
22 comments
"To someone my age (47) Keith Richards (67) in his memoir Life has a kind of rare healthy post-Empire geezer transparency. But for my younger friends, it’s no longer rare; it’s now just the norm. What does shame mean anymore? my friends in their 20s ask. Why in the hell did your boyfriend post a song called 'Suck My Ballz' on Facebook last night? my mom asks. But nothing yet compares to the transparency that Sheen has unleashed in the past two weeks—contempt about celebrity, his profession, the old Empire world order..."
Bret Easton Ellis on Charlie Sheen and the worlds of pre- and post-"Empire," i.e., celebrity.
posted by bardic
on Mar 16, 2011 -
110 comments
‘Don’t let up on ’em. Drive ’em off the road. Starve ’em to death. Pull their money out of their bank accounts.’ The colorful, on the lam Randy and Evi Quaid are interviewed and profiled at length in the newest
Vanity Fair and
Esquire magazines.
posted by item
on Dec 1, 2010 -
44 comments
Perhaps it's best my grandmother didn't live to see this day: the Liberace Museum, located in the besequined showman's old stomping grounds of Las Vegas, is
closing, and that would have saddened her. Maybe it's time for all of us to brush up on our early
Liberace history. And let's hear the sparkling man, resplendent in gold, take
Mack the Knife through some changes. Farewell, Liberace.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Sep 18, 2010 -
66 comments
The Thriller Diaries: Michael Jackson’s 1983 “Thriller” remains the most popular music video of all time: a 14-minute horror spoof that changed the business. Behind the scenes it gave its star a temporary home with director John Landis, sparked a near romance with actress Ola Ray, and revealed how damaged the young pop idol already was.
posted by reenum
on Jun 24, 2010 -
33 comments
In 20 Years ... Upload a photo of yourself and the site produces a predictive illustration of what you'll look like in 20 or 30 years. And as an added bonus, you can toggle whether you're a drug addict or not.
[more inside]
posted by crunchland
on Jun 21, 2010 -
115 comments
French artist
Anthony Geoffrey makes fantastic celebrity caricatures. The site uses flash and is in French but it loads fast and the navigation is simple. The caricatures are in the Portfolio. I particularly enjoyed his Ash from
Evil Dead and his House MD. These are
not the same as the ones you find in the mall by some poor guy trying to scratch out a living.
[more inside]
posted by bwg
on May 15, 2010 -
11 comments
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?" Veteran actor
Peter Graves--who was the star of the original
Mission Impossible TV series, most famously (for some of us) played Capt. Oveur in
Airplane!, and was the Emmy-winning host of
Biography--has died of natural causes. He was 83.
posted by zardoz
on Mar 14, 2010 -
93 comments
Girl, Interrupted: The Life and Death of Brittany Murphy "Part of the shock surrounding Murphy's death is clearly related to her age, though it may also be attributed to the fact that Murphy has been in the public eye for over 15 years, starting out in Hollywood when she was 14... It's something we've watched progress this entire decade: young women who are held up as the next big thing (Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears) and then brushed aside or openly mocked after they no longer fit an expected mold. It is both a story of self-destruction and mass-destruction, the business of creating and destroying a star; sometimes it's caused by internal forces, and sometimes it's fed by the rest of the world."
posted by ocherdraco
on Dec 20, 2009 -
139 comments
From A-lister to Aid worker: Does celebrity diplomacy really work? Rock stars," asked Homer Simpson, with his customary sagacity, "is there anything they don't know?" Only these days, of course, it's
not just rockers but movie stars and businessmen – and indeed
anyone with an above-average public profile – who, for one reason or another, are intent on telling the rest of us how the world should be changed for the better.
Or
at least, that's how it seems. So much so that a
conference of eminent professors of international relations assembled recently in The Hague
to explore the modern phenomenon of what they call "
celebrity diplomacy", amid fears that it has
reached the point where superstar lobbyists are damaging the traditional workings of international diplomacy and global politics.
posted by infini
on Jan 16, 2009 -
16 comments
