Fan Fare

from Jeremy Gaunt:

#ThingsStrongerThanTheKenyaShilling

Twitter does have some very strange Trends. These are the things that appear on the right-hand side of the page that show what people are talking about. They more they talk, the more likely it is that something will get listed.  More often than not they are about celebrities such as Justin Bieber.

But today's Worldwide  Trends was particularly unusual.

#ThingsStrongerThanTheKenyaShilling was right up there near the top.

As the graph here shows, the shilling has taken a heavy beating since the Lehman Brother collapse. This is one reason for the Twitter outburst.  "Kenyans are getting fed up," said @oreo_junkie, whose Twitter feed states it is from Nairobi.

And judging by some of the other "answers" to the trendline, it is not a matter for levity in Kenya. "Government's resolve to fight Corruption" was one;  "Stupidity of Kenyans to  reelect the same MPs" was another.

But other Tweeters are taking advantage of the trend to broaden the answers out.  Chances  that "Jerry Springer weds Oprah Winfrey" is apparently stronger than the shilling, as is   "Arsenal's chances of winning the League, Champions League and the FA Cup".

Sheen vs. Gaddafi – who has better value?

Charlie Sheen or Muammar Gaddafi? Once thought to have nothing in common, the longtime Hollywood bad boy and embattled Libyan leader have not only topped the headlines this week, but popular culture blogs, news websites, media outlets and social networking sites. The Web has been abuzz with comparisons of both these colorful characters over who offers the better entertainment value for their outlandish quotes and in Gaddafi’s case, his unabashed fashion sense.

Britain’s The Guardian newspaper offered a much emailed quiz this week with 10 over-the-top quotes and a choice to pick in each case Sheen or Gaddafi, such as “I have defeated this earthworm, with my words.” Unless you have been following every development in each case, you might be surprised at what you get wrong.

Sheen’s one-liners have become so popular that he has achieved, through loose lips, a record-setting Twitter run, gaining more than 1 million followers in 25 hours and 17 minutes after joining this week. And The Hollywood Reporter says Sheen is about to become the next possible celebrity to earn endorsements for their tweets. It may not be close to the roughly $2 million per episode he earned on “Two and Half Men”, but each tweet could get him between $200 and $25,000 – not unlike Kim Kardashian.

Sheen’s boast of having “tigerblood” became a hot trending Twitter word.  Gaddafi’s choice speeches have become widely followed, too. So, it may not pay in politics to ramble, but in entertainment the looser the mouth, the bigger the payday.

Threats follow cuddles in budding Justin Bieber-Selena Gomez romance

They said they were just friends and laughed off the photos a few weeks ago that suggested there might be a teen romance budding.

But  Justin Bieber broke the hearts of millions of his young fans when photos surfaced on Monday of the 16 year-old singer canoodling (bare-chested)  with Disney star Selena Gomez, 18,  (wearing a bikini) on a yacht in the Caribbean over the New Year.

Just to set the record straight, the pictures that we saw from paparazzi photo agency site Bauer Griffin didn’t actually show the kids kissing.  But they sure were up close and personal.

Nothing alarming there, you might think. Unless it’s the still boyish frame of the young Canadian crooner.

But the pictures were enough to set off a torrent of nasty Twitter messages aimed at Gomez from Bieber’s young (ish) fans, including a number of death threats to the young star of Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place”.

“roses are red, violets are blue, @selenagomez if you’ll break @justinbieber’s heart I’m gonna kill you”, and  “@selenagomez stay away from Justin pedophile, retard wait i’m gonna kill ya in the night underneath your smelly bed,” were just a couple of the over-the-top reactions.

Americans were quick to note that any sexual relationship between Bieber at 16, and “older woman” Gomez would amount to statutory rape under U.S. law as Bieber is well below the age of consent.

Rainn Wilson reigns in Ebert’s Toronto twitter showdown

Who knew Dwight Kurt Schrute III could sell paper and tweet with Internet wit and humor, too?

At the Toronto International Film Festival’s Filmmaker’s Lounge on Saturday, Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute of “The Office”) out-tweeted four other film industry panelists — hard-core tweeters all — in a “Twitter Showdown” hosted by MTV’s Dan Levy.

Each panelist had 60 seconds to “tweet” something witty and original about Roger Ebert’s statements about the film industry. In 140 characters or less.

Wilson was up against David Poland (@DavidPoland), a critic with Movie City News, Eric Kohn, a critic with indieWIRE and Screenrush, Grace Wang (@etherielmusings), TIFF social media coordinator, and Scott Tobias, a critic with The Onion’s AV Club.

Wilson won 4 of the 10 rounds, followed by Eric Kohn, who won 3 of the rounds.

Audiences were able to follow along, but without Ebert tweeting as well the “conversation” would’ve been difficult to follow without being in present in the room. (And for those who don’t tweet, don’t understand online “language”, or don’t know what Twitter is, this was likely even more difficult to follow.)

Elle Macpherson in rhino horn row

Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson has got herself into a spot of bother by implying in a recent interview that she used powdered rhino horn as a beauty therapy, even though the animal is endangered. Animal welfare groups have reportedly reacted angrily, prompting her to issue a statement clarifying that her remarks, made in the shortened Twitter format, were tongue-in-cheek.

“While I’m happy that the critical issue of protecting endangered species is back in the headlines, I am a but surprised that it is based on my use of herbal and homeopathic medicine,” she said in a statement given to Reuters.

“I was Twittering with a Times journalist about the taste of herbal medicines and made a flippant comment inferring I had tasted rhino horn. To be clear, I have never knowingly consumed or encouraged consumption of any products derived from endangered species. The idea is abhorrent to me. While I love my herbal and Chinese remedies I would never put my health over the survival of a species. I guess this is one of the pitfalls of 140 character journalism.”

She went on to explain that four out of five species of rhino are under immediate threat, mainly due to poaching for their horns. “Killing rhinos because some people think its horn is an aphrodisiac is beyond appalling.”

One lesson from the whole sorry saga may just be: Think before you Tweet!

UPDATE: “This Is It” Really? Fans prep for Michael Jackson movie

(updates with Elizabeth Taylor’s rave review)

After weeks of hype that the King of Pop would no doubt love, the Michael Jackson concert movie “This Is It” hits theaters around the globe on Wednesday.

The premiere from Los Angeles the night before will be webcast live on www.ThisIsIt-Movie.com and on www.crackle.com, and organizers said fans will be able to comment and discuss the event on the web.

One of the first reviews came from Jackson’s good friend Elizabeth Taylor, who attended a private screening last week and took to Twitter on Monday to reveal that it is “the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen.” We assume the two-time Oscar winner did not get around to seeing her last feature film, ”The Flintstones.”  We’ve told you about the box office (here). We’ve interviewed the director (here). And we’ve even looked at record sales for the soundtrack (here).

Now, with the event film of the fall upon audiences (no disrespect to “Twilight” fans and the upcoming “New Moon”), we took some time to ask everyday moviegoers if they were excited about MJ’s movie. So, we were out at theaters in Las Vegas on Sunday — and even behind the stage of Harrah’s for a chat with a Michael Jackson impersonator — to ask their opinions. Click below to see what they think.

(video by Marc Price)

Kanye West death hoax hits the Web

Kanye West is alive and well, despite an Internet hoax suggesting that the rap star died in a Los Angeles car crash on Tuesday.

A fake story was circulated via e-mail and on social networking websites saying that West was killed in a collision that left a second person injured, a third arrested for  manslaughter and a fourth person detained by police.

None of it was true. The rap star’s girlfriend, Amber Rose, posted a message on Twitter denying the story. “This ‘RIP Kanye West’ topic is not funny and it’s NOT TRUE!” she wrote, according to news website MTV.com. Her Twitter post has since been taken down.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Kanye death hoax was replaced on Twitter by the following popular wisecrack, repeated by several posters, “Whoever started the RIP Kanye West hoax, Imma let you finish, but Balloon Boy had the best hoax of all time!”

West, of course, interrupted singer Taylor Swift’s victory speech last month the MTV Video Music Awards with the words, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time.”

West, who pulled out this month of a planned tour with singer Lady Gaga, isn’t the first celebrity to be the subject of a fake death report. But could it be the MTV incident that led the hoaxers to choose West as their target this time? If not,  why have the mystery hoaxers got it in for Kanye?

UPDATE: Aerosmith wife no fan of band’s albums

(updates with comment from Joe Perry)

The wife of Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry doesn’t particularly care for the band’s recordings, and has never listened to any of their albums in their entirety. 

“I am not a fan of Aerosmith’s music without the live performance behind it,” Billie Perry (at right with her husband) wrote on her Twitter page on Sunday.

“Honestly I have never listened to 1 CD all the way through. I listen in the studio when they record. I’ve never put an Aero CD on my player. I did order a few songs from iTunes, but have not listened.” 

She considers Aerosmith to be one of the greatest live acts in rock ‘n’ roll, but “… without the live show the songs n lyrics don’t move me.”

Perry’s comments come at a sensitive time for the veteran rock band. Aerosmith was forced to cancel a troubled tour two months ago after singer Steven Tyler fell off the stage, and he has not spoken to his bandmates since.

Joe Perry, who is promoting a new solo album that will keep him on the road through March, recently told Reuters he has not written a song with Tyler in 10 years.

Vincent van Gogh: Facebook Addict?

Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh wrote more than 800 letters during his short life, posting a note almost daily to his brother Theo. This was quite common in the 19th century, due to the lack of telephones, email and social networking sites.

In his letters, he would chat about the art he was working on, and try to sketch his paintings so his family and friends had a sense of his plans. The letters have become an art history treasure and have recently been compiled in a new six-volume publication.

If Van Gogh had lived in the 21st century, would he have logged on to a social networking site such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, and posted regular updates about the progress of his work? Judging from the volume of his correspondence, that would be likely. He wouldn’t have had to repeat his thoughts to every letter recipient, and if he had a camera at hand he could have uploaded photos of his work for others to comment on.

Miley Cyrus quits Twitter

On television, Disney star Miley Cyrus can flip between her normal self and her Hannah Montana alter ego, just by putting on a blond wig.

On the Internet, the 16 year-old Cyrus also can switch off unwanted public attention, just by deleting her Twitter page, as she did on Thursday,  without a clear explanation.

Will Cyrus’ departure herald a celebrity exodus from Twitter? Don’t count on it.

Just this week, Elizabeth Taylor used the website to announce to the world that she was going into the hospital for heart surgery. And even as Cyrus quit the website, “30 Rock” star Tracy Morgan announced that he was joining it Thursday. Why? Because his fans wanted him to, that’s why, Morgan said.

Of course, there is an online campaign to get Cyrus back to Twitter. On Thursday afternoon, “Mileycomeback” was the most active topic on Twitter, meaning some users of the site were typing in those words to call on Cyrus to restart her Twitter page.

Cyrus has a strong force that appears to have pulled her off Twitter. In an article titled “Miley Cyrus Quits Twitter for Boyfriend,” People magazine said that in one of her last Twitter posts, Cyrus wrote, “FYI Liam doesn’t have a Twitter and he wants me to delete mine with good reason.”

Liam Hemsworth is reportedly Miley’s latest boyfriend, and her co-star in upcoming movie “Last Song.”