The Blogging Journalist

'The Web's Babe Bloggers'

The sun.co.uk has a January 12, 2008, post headlined "The web's Babe Bloggers." It specifically highlights tennis star Serena Williams and a post she wrote about guys who stop calling just when a woman thinks she and the guy could have a promising relationship.

Frankly, Williams' openness about the hurt she's experienced in the romance department surprised me. I guess it's because I don't expect successful, rich women to have relationship problems just as I often don't expect beautiful women to have relationship problems. Yet they do, just like the rest of us. We're all susceptible to heartache and pain although some of us may pretend we are not.

Technorati Tags: sun.co.uk,Babe Bloggers,Syrena Williams

How Entertainment Blogs Find Their News

A reader asked Leslie Gornstein, E! Online's "Answer Bitch": "How do entertainment blogs find their news? I mean, fresh news, without taking it from E! or People?" —PLC, New York

Answer: "In much the same way as the print writers do." Among other things, "They build up giant databases of bitter Industry sources and get kicked out of the same clubs and take verbal abuse from the same snarling publicists as the magazine writers." Here's more of Gornstein's answer.

Blogger Perez Hilton's Notoriety

Sunshine Mugrabi over at Red Herring says in a December 28, 2006, post that, "Only in the blogosphere could an unknown like Perez Hilton [link added] become almost as famous as the stars he pillories on his blog. Traffic for starwatching blogs went through the roof this year, and his led the pack. Meanwhile, paparazzi, miffed that he was stealing their images, decided to sue Perez Hilton and his little dog too (see "Blogger Perez sued by paparazzi")."

To read the entire post, please see "The Paparazzi Turned on Perez Hilton. Hilton [Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.]  blogs at Perez Hilton.com.

The 'Living With Legends' Blog

Have you ever heard of the "Living with Legends" blog? If not, you're not alone. I hadn't either before I read about it today in an Adam Cohen article in the International Herald Tribune (IHT) headlined "Meanwhile: The art of blogging at the Hotel Chelsea.

Cohen, an assistant editorial page editor at The News York Times, describes it as "a hip, literate blog about life in the brick and iron behemoth on West 23rd Street." I like it.

By the way IHT is owned by The New York Times Company.

Blogger Perez Hilton Sued

"Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has been hit with a $7.6 million copyright infringement lawsuit by a Los Angeles photo agency," according SFGate.com and other publications.

For details see "Perez Hilton Hit with $7.6 Million Lawsuit." By the way, Hilton has one of the most successful celebrity blogs in the world. The suit has drawn attention as far away as China. China Daily reported it in a post headlined "Paparazzi sues celeb blogger for $7.6M."

With Blogs, There's No Waiting For Celebrity Journalists?

The Cape Cod Times says "It used to be that if you wanted to hear the latest, hot celebrity gossip, you had to wait an entire week for the new National Enquirer, Star or People magazine to hit the stands. Not anymore," the publication noted. "Now if a celebrity trips on a red carpet or is caught actually eating food, chances are someone is there to chronicle the event and post on the Internet - immediately."

True. And if the celebrity wears ugly clothes, Go Fug Yourself will tell them about it. I visit GFY regularly.

To read the Cape Cod Times post, see "The Web snares celebs.

Bloggers Re-write Rules In Celebrity Reporting

San Francisco Chronicle critic at-large Neva Chonin contends in an August 14, 2006 article that, "Bloggers have been giving old-school journalism a run for its money since the Drudge Report stole Newsweek's fire with the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998."

"But for those working in the dishy world of celebrity gossip," she added, "ceding ground to online upstarts is a recent phenomenon. TMZ's [Mel] Gibson coup demonstrated, in the largest, loudest way, that the fame game is operating under new, and highly fluid, rules."

To learn why, see "Give us the gossip and give it to us now! Bloggers shake up the rules, eliminate the wait in the celebrity gawking sphere."