Monday, May 09, 2005
I can't top this headline: Arianna's Blog Blows
A few days back, I poked a little fund at conserv. . . err, libera . . .err, schizophrenic socialite Arianna Huffington's "Celebrity Blog" concept. Apparently, it's worse than even I could have imagined.
Her blog is such a bomb that it's the box-office equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven's Gate rolled into one. In magazine terms, it's the disastrous clone of Tina Brown's Talk, JFK Jr.'s George or Maer Roshan's Radar.
Despite my best hopes for easy comedic material, it appears most celebrities have little to no interest in posting on Arianna's blog. And they're a bit upset she used their names.
And nary a Big Media heavyweight like Tom Freston, Barry Diller or David Geffen in sight. The latter's supposed involvement especially intrigued Matt Drudge, who asked the L.A. Weekly, "Am I going to have to cancel my subscriptions to the trades? Is Geffen going to announce DreamWorks news on her blog?" I can report that, despite the blog's pre-launch hype that he would be a charter member, Geffen never had any intention of blogging on Arianna's site. Moreover, sources tell me that Geffen's people had to quietly tell Huffington to stop using his name as bait in her less-than-successful effort to fund the blog with Hollywood money.
Ouch.