Salon.com > Kat Giantis

Cindy Crawford for $29.95: Stars realize there's gold in them thar”authorized” Web sites

Fri, 23 Apr 1999 16:00:00 +0000

Plug the name of any music or movie star into a search engine and you'll come up with a
baffling array of useless links -- everything from slapped-together fan sites to
Penthouse knockoffs. A simple AltaVista search of former "Melrose Place" diva
Alyssa Milano, for example, yields everything from "Deutsches Fan-sehen
mit Alyssa Milano" to a multitude of XXX sites.

Although image-conscious stars (a redundancy if there ever was one) are
quick to phone their attorneys over every unflattering tabloid story or
illegal use of their likeness on a T-shirt, as a whole Hollywood's been
slow in recognizing the incredible power of the Web. Hence the Web's bounty of unauthorized celebrity
sites has been able to thrive virtually unthreatened by copyright infringement lawsuits.

But some big names are shedding their Luddite skin and entering the already crowded online entertainment market. Some do it for fun, others
for profit, but all hope to put their best face forward on the World Wide Web.
Here's the lowdown on a few of the
celebrity-run or celebrity-authorized sites:

Karaoke cool

Fri, 09 Apr 1999 13:59:00 +0000

In the hierarchy of things considered hip and cutting edge, karaoke would probably rank just a few spots above Vanilla Ice and the Macarena. Once mentioned in the same breath as K-Tel records and Mr. Microphone, the Japanese-imported pastime is about to get the Hollywood treatment in not one but two high-profile films.

First up is "Duets," which gives karaoke the official stamp of in-crowd approval since it stars newly crowned Hollywood princess Gwyneth Paltrow. The recently wrapped pic, directed by the Oscar-winning beauty's much-thanked father, Bruce Paltrow ("St. Elsewhere"), centers on wannabe singers who hustle karaoke contests.

"Duets" isn't the only sing-along action in town. Ben Stiller is slated to star in the Tom Shadyac ("Patch Adams") comedy "Karaoke Knight" for Universal Pictures. The actor, whose portrayal of the agony of zip-locked franks and beans in "There's Something About Mary" was cruelly overlooked by the Academy, will stay away from bodily harm (and fluids) this time around by playing a singer with charisma to burn but a voice that wouldn't even get him on "The Gong Show." He finds renewed hope and success through the miracle of karaoke.