What Do Celebrities Blog About?
"That's how she rolls. Just when you least expect it, Mariska throws you a curve. Over the years, I've come to expect nothing less from the hardest working—and needless to say, hottest—perp-buster on TV." That's from the "blog" of T.V. star Mariska Hargitay, which is written solely by people who are not Mariska Hargitay (but who may know her!). "Preorder your 'XO, M' t-shirts!" reads another "blog" post. It turns out that a lot of celebrity blogs aren't blogs at all, but just a collection of markedly amateurish press releases. But! At the other end of the spectrum, some celebrity blogs are deeply personal, like Al Roker's. He recently wrote a moving eulogy of his mom there! Its gravity is only slightly undermined by the cartoon of Al in a prop plane buzzing around the screen. So what else do famous people do with their personal webjournals? Our Intern Mary applied her analytical tools to the most recent posts on 48 of these sites and came up with some findings.
METHODOLOGY: We started with this list of 66 blogging celebrities, added a few faves, eliminated the Huffington Post bloggers, and excluded presidential contenders, because that shit is bananas. Here's the raw data:
- David Beckham - recent soccer game (self promo)
- Zach Braff - movies and playlists
- Mark Cuban - dancing
- No Doubt - recent recordings (self promo)
- Moby - indecipherable poetry
- Meredith Vieira - getting a mammogram
- Fred Durst - indecipherable rant
- Barbra Streisand - Rush Limbaugh - PR release
- Jeff Bridges - recent casting (honorable mention for rad site design)
- John Mayer - OJ Simpson watch
- Rosie O'Donnell - "feel alright" video
- Margaret Cho - Rosie O'Donnell
- Dave Barry - Fun pets
- Jamie Oliver - pubs
- William Shatner - ShatnerVision
- Alyssa Milano - Upcoming gigs
- Dave Navarro - The fastest Asian-American in the world
- Julia Sweeney -long-winded narrative of regular events
- Donald Trump - purely self promo
- Tom Green - video: hiding in a suitcase
- Kevin Smith - long-winded narrative of regular events
- Mariska Hargitay - purely self promo
- David Byrne - sexual selection and creativity
- Curt Schilling - purely self promo
- Anna Kournikova - purely self promo
- Roseanne - Karen Finley (awesome)
- Kanye West - the "illest" shoe award
- Billy Morrison - the Bahamas
- Jason Mraz - whining about jetlag
- Kathy Griffin - Catholic Chuch
- MC Hammer - "Look University"
- Pamela Anderson - purely self promo
- Al Roker - eulogy to mother
- Brian Williams - purely self promo (N.B.: Usually not self promo, actually quite good, we just caught him on an off moment)
- The Dixie Chicks - purely self promo
- Anderson Cooper - the GOP (written by minion)
- Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - purely self promo
- Victoria Beckham - purely self promo
- Bare Naked Ladies - photo of a ship
- Deepak Chopra - genetics
- Michael Moore - purely self promo
- Tommy Lasorda - baseball
- David Duchovny - purely self promo
- Jackie Chan - purely self promo
- Kirstie Alley - weight loss
- Neil Gaiman - writing
- Ru Paul - "THIS SHIT IS BANANAS!" (bonus points: old school blogger!)
- Mark Hoppus - purely self promo