Wednesday, March 15, 2006

George Clooney reveals the truth behind celebrity blogs


"'I am just looking for someone in the news like Murrow did with McCarthyism, like Cronkite did with Vietnam and like Bernstein and Woodward did with Nixon. I'm just looking for someone in the news to ask difficult questions of this government. It's not my job to do that. I'm not intelligent enough to do it,'"

That's howTheKSBWChannel.com quoted George Clooney recently in a puff piece about his film, Good Night and Good Luck.

The self-evaluation at the end of his quote is dead-on, it seems. There is a recent brou-ha-ha over a blog posting at the Huffington Post that was attributed to Clooney. Apparently, Clooney had responded to some questions and Huffington Post Kingpin Arianna Huffington edited his responses as a "post" for her Left-log. Clooney objected to the editing and he asked for a retraction. Zsa-Zsa Gabor-ington refused and the fur is now flying.

Today, Zsa-Zsa responded and explained how this came about:

"When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of 'Good Night, and Good Luck' in New York a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked. So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted."



"Wasn't sure how a blogged worked..."???????

Really George?

It's a pretty point-and-click situation... you know?

This also begs the question: How many of those "Celebrity Blogs" are just Q & A sessions that Zsa-Zsa's staff at the H-Post edits into a coherent sounding post? Shouldn't the Huffington Post acknowledge and disclose this?

The Huffington Post presents the impression that the celebrities blogging there are all penning their thoughts attributed to their by-line. This suggests that, in some cases, these celebrities are pithy, witty and even literate. But, if in this case, the celebrities answer questions THROUGH THEIR PUBLICISTS, then the actual thoughts and ideas attributed to them at Zsa-Zsa's Play Pen are actually twice or three times removed from the actual celebrity in question.

Is this honest? Or is it a gross mis-representation of the actual star power "contributing" to the H-Post?

Arainna... disclose the truth! Who REALLY writes their own posts?

No posts for the past 6 weeks!

Choose your favorite excuse:

1. OC Chronicle is moving from our home of 8 years to a new location in beautiful La Habra Heights. (click link for some cool descriptions of our new community)
2. Been too depressed about the Bush poll ratings.
3. Found no humor in the Veep's hunting accident.
4. Been too busy following the Angels' Spring training.
5. I'm a father of 3 kids, aged 1, 4 and 6!!! Who has time to blog!??

Which ever you choose, you're right. So let's move beyond excuses and get back to work.