Popmatters, contemplating a certain new web development that allows you to track celebrities in real time, writes:
[A]ny system that generates power through popular appeal will eventually result in a loss of power as that appeal wanes, which is why famous people and their handlers are so desperate to maintain control over the ways in which they are viewed by the people whose approval they depend on. The whole celebrity system — stars, publicists, editors, even paparazzi — is, to shift metaphors, more than a catalog: it's a cathedral, a house of worship in which the god of the day is constantly changing, where one minute the man behind the pulpit is trying to convince you that Jennifer Aniston won't let being wronged by Brad get her down, and in the next that Angelina was his destiny all along.
The piece concludes: "Gawker Stalker doesn't make celebrities any more or less famous, but it does change the way we see them and ourselves in relation to them; at the very least, it's more interesting than another round of red-carpet interviews."
Wow! And all this time we thought we were just generating more ad revenue. Nick Denton goes through three bottles of Axe Body Spray each hour. That stuff isn't free, you know.
Gawker Stalker [Popmatters]