In Contention

Tag: Britney Spears

  • More on the Twitter apocalypse: Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN

    Ashton KutcherRecently I wrote about the dawn of the journo Twitter apocalypse, the idea that the micro-blogging platform will somehow have a considerable impact on the journalistic form.  I have my doubts.  And even if the possibility is there for Twitter to be a tool of the journalistic trade, I find myself wondering whether it should.

    Case in point: it seems Ashton Kutcher is in a public sprint to 1 million followers with CNN’s Breaking News feed.  The former is sitting at 888,000 followers, according to this AP news story.  The latter: 937,000.  Britney Spears, by the way, is somewhere in between.  But as much as I can’t help a natural irritation to Kutcher’s response to all of this, I also can’t deny what he offers in closing.

    From the AP:

    The 31-year-old actor recently threw down the gauntlet, challenging CNN and its founder, Ted Turner. In a Web video posted earlier this week, Kutcher said he would ding-dong-ditch Turner’s house if he beat CNN to 1 million. (For those unfamiliar with the classic adolescent prank, ding-dong-ditch is when you ring someone’s doorbell and run away.)

    “I find it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter,” Kutcher said in a video he posted on qik.com. “I just thought that was kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media.”

    Preach on.  Speaking of all of this, has CNN’s news coverage on the whole become a lot more akin to a big top show over the last year-and-a-half to anyone else?  Not that it wasn’t close to the absurd already but lately I feel like my senses are ambushed every time I turn it on.

    (Ironically, I’m off to share this post on Twitter.)

  • Banning the paparazzi

    City Councilmember Dennis Zine has proposed an anti-paparazzi Public Safety Law in Los AngelesI’ve been mulling over this story all day, wondering where I stand, weighing the pros and cons of any legislation whatsoever that could be painted as First Amendment violation.  I’ve come to the conclusion that Los Angeles is incredibly inept at addressing serious concerns (traffic, a new spike in gang violence, managing tax dollars with an appropriate balance), let alone issues of such triviality.

    Then the local news ran a package a few moments ago, and my brains is turning over the matter all over again.

    In a nutshell, City Councilmember Dennis Zine proposed a “Personal Safety Law” in Februrary, essentially to afford a personal space of some sort for celebrities and a protection against paparazzi packs that tend to prohibit stars from entering or leaving medical facilities.  Today, a number of individuals testified on the matter, including actor Eric Roberts (spinning something about celebs naming their kids after fruits for a reason…or something) and singer John Mayer (proclaiming himself a “rock star” in the linked item, a stretch by my standards but so be it).

    Being a former police sergeant, one would think Zine would understand the futility of the attempt, just as Chief Bill Bratton does.  Of course, the ever-colorful Bratton presents a carnival of ignorance when he proclaims at press conferences, “Stay home, it’d make our job a lot easier” (quoted from the news package, not the NY Times story).

    The paparazzi issue has hit a new level of saturation in the Britney/Paris/Lindsay era, and we all recall that surfer pack throwdown on paps trying to snap shots of Matthew McConaughey.  The environment is ripe for such a legislation to recieve some fair attention, but…I don’t know…it all seems like a giant waste of time and a distraction for an underpaid, understaffed police force that is challenged with the law and order of typicality as it is.

    So what if a few paps suffer broken toes because they can’t get the fuck out of the way when a star’s SUV is plowing through?  So what if a group of paps get their asses kicked by sun-stained beach bras with nothing better to do but play out Darwin’s law for our viewing pleasure?  No one wants to suffer through something like the Princess Diana trgedy again, but this is the life.

    I spent a lot of my time writing about this Amy Winehouse breakdown or that while I was in London over the summer.  The issue of stars gone stupid isn’t relegated to La-La Land.  And of course, the morons of celebrity are not the only ones hounded (poor Eric Roberts seems unable to handle the attention in the weeks since “The Dark Knight” landed).  But presenting legislation — vague, ill-advised and thin legislation at that…sigh.  At least the local news had something to cover this evening.

    You tell me.  Am I out of line here?

    (More coverage at the Los Angeles Times.)