Hasta La Creative!

LiLo, the charming Disney redhead that never gained a foothold in reality: Another child-star on the brink of losing everything? Not according to her best PR move to date. Beleaguered Lindsay Lohan released a mock E-Harmony video yesterday on FunnyOrDie (1.7MM views) that takes sharp jabs at herself: She’s single (lonely), reportedly broke, and probably alcoholic. But, she has her good qualitities as well, promising Mr. Right: “…at the end of the date, I promise you that I never lose my Google hits, just my underwear.” Gotta love a woman that has clear priorities!

Speaking of Google, if you haven’t seen YouTube lately, it’s crystal clear that Google is serious about monetizing the popular video site. Check out YouTube Edu (Education), YouTube House Hub (Government), and YTSO (YouTube Symphony Orchestra). The YTSO alone is worth the visit. And don’t forget to visit Pepsi-sponsored PopTub, a channel featuring the freshest videos on YouTube.

Jeff Louis is an experienced Senior Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: www.linkedin/in/jefflouis or on twitter @jlo0312.

 Never underestimate the power of a star. Not the ones high in the sky, but the other ones, dimmer, out at night in Hollywood. It’s been long-rumored that company’s with “celebrity spokespeople” are so yesterday, but they still keep on popping up, getting endorsements then smokin’ dope and losing endorsements. I guess we need someone to look up to…Madison Avenue says so. But, stars are important to products, to companys, and even to people. Stars can make us money, or totally ignore us. I asked for Lindsay Lohan to be my friend on Twitter. No reply. (bitch)
Enter Mario Armando Lavandeira, a man with stars in his eyes, as well. He’s someone that we love to hate, or hate to love. He lives a life of relative ease in Los Angeles, hanging out with Hollywood’s famous, or infamous, celebrities. He had a show on VH1 for a while, has been featured in the NYTimes at least twice, and has appeared on the Kathy Griffin Show, Nightline, The View, MTV, and others.

If you hadn’t already guessed, our secretive Mario has an alter-ego that he got on the steets: Perez Hilton. Perez Hilton, the self-proclaimed “Queen of all Media,” just celebrated his birthday on March 30th with some of his fave stars: Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Tara Reid, Salman Rushdie (what is he doing there?), Kim Kardashian, The Jonas Brothers, and of course, Paris Hilton. I know this because I visited his website. I’m not sure why I was there….but as I leisurely scrolled through the gallery of  star-studded birthday snaps, playing “Guess the Star ” with myself (I went 4/82), all hell broke loose. At the bottom of the gallery, glowing as it gloated at me, was the number of unique visitors  received in 9 days: 11,000,000 (EE-Lev-Un-Mil-Yun.) I rubbed my eyes. Squinted. It didn’t change. Chagrined, my first thought was: “The friggin losers visiting this site have NOTHING to do (which I proved…).”  The second thought burned my brain with a tinge of jealous awe: “Perez Hilton is a genius!”

In case you’re “not in the know,” Perezhilton.com is the online version of supermarket tabloids, but way-nastier. Perez berates the stars he seems to idolize, “outs” suspected homosexuals, refers to stars as “bitches” (and worse), and doodles degrading images on top of celebrity photos. Love him, hate him, or despise him, he does deserve some credit: The man has spent four years of his life blogging. For a living. Very successfully. This may be the greatest Social Media victory ever, not to mention that Perez is nearing “phenom stage.”

Just a guy that writes about other people-other  famous people- and is said to make some decent bank doing it… in the high six-figures for his “effort.” Perez won’t say how much he makes (How Rude!), but unconfirmed sources that sued him stated his take-home in 2007 was over $800,000. Not a surprising figure when his advertising revenue is reported to be $45,000 per day! Yep, just a guy and his blog, blogging away, blog, blog, blog. Bloggity-blog-blog, blaga blog blog, all day long, about rich people.  %*$& my life.

Maybe, like me, you think he’s a genius. But, he’s not. He’s a failed actor and former receptionist that was fired from his publicist job at the Star. He started blogging because ”it looked easy.” Okay, I will add lazy to his attributes. On a nicer note, his story does inspire “wannabe writers,” like me; while I am bustin’ ass to get a Google link on my blog, he has the likes of  MTV, Kentucky Fried Chicken, “Twilight,” famous musicians, chic LA boutiques, Walden University, weight loss products, and a host of others gracing his pages. Daily.
Some facts about Perezhilton.com:

• The site’s demographic is mainly female,
• Average age is 26 
• comScore rates the site among the Top 10 Entertainment sites 
• Monthly unique visitors, U.S.: 1.3 million
• Global (he’s global?) unique visitors: 2.4 million

With a thriving blog that’s generating bucks, buzz, and press, what’s next for this astute entrepreneur?

Believe it or not, he’s “hard at work” extending the Perez Hilton brand. It’s rumored that he doesn’t write anymore–it took too much time. Others dish dirt for him now. It has, afterall, been four years of work. This new found freedom from writing gives him time to drop in on morning talk shows and comment on the latest starlet, run amok. Plus, there’s always Empire Perez to fret about. As we went to press this morning, the empire included a YouTube channel dedicated to Perez Hilton, and a line of clothing dedicated to Perez Hilton. Seriously, though, perpetuation is on his mind, because the one lesson he’s learned dissin’ the elite for four years, it’s that fame is fleeting. Today’s darling is tomorrow’s Jenny Craig spokesperson.

**No Stars Were Hurt During The Research and Writing Of  This Report.**

 Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner & Buyer with over seven years of B2B & B2C experience. His interests are emerging media, schweet  ideas, and redefining the status quo (not necessarily in that order.)  He’s passionate about writing and digs great creative executions based on strategy.  Follow him on twitter @jlo0312, or LinkedIn, www.LinkedIn.com/in/jefflouis

In an effort to boost the literacy level of kids today, Rotary clubs have partnered with country music legend Dolly Parton to promote literacy bridges the pop culture gap. Rotary International today announced a collaboration with Parton’s Tennessee-based Dollywood Foundation to promote early childhood reading.

Rotary clubs in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are encouraged to support the foundation’s Imagination Library program, which provides books to children from birth until age five, so that parents can begin reading to them as soon as possible.

The program is especially valuable for children in underprivileged and working class families for whom children’s books might be an unaffordable luxury. Rotary club participation could include promoting the program locally, helping to identify and register the children, and paying for the books and mailings. The average annual cost is $28 per child.

(Source) Press

After the tragedies that she had experienced some months back, diva Jennifer Hudson has finally opened up. Hudson has been mum about the October killing of her mother, brother and 7 year old nephew but apparently she seems to have learned to go on.

“To me, the biggest notes and the longest notes are the easiest notes,” she said. “It’s just like I’m glad that I made it to the end of the song. That’s how I am. OK, I got this now, I’m home. I’m going home now.”

William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister Julia, is accused in the triple homicide of Hudson’s relatives. Balfour has pleaded not guilty.

(Source) Yahoo

In a move to help provide alternative practices towards the area of recycling to bring down waste issues, MySkip is promoting the use of unwanted goods via first-ever 24-hour ‘Celebrity Throwaway’.

Everyday items donated by such celebrities as Sheryl Crow, Ricky Gervais and Shilpa Shetty will be available for free at www.myskip.com from 0900 GMT on Tuesday 3 March 2009.

MySkip also today unveiled an enhanced interactive website designed to help consumers and organisations to easily dispose of or find useful items that might otherwise end-up in British landfills. Every year, UK households send an alarming amount of rubbish to the country’s 4,000 landfills – 15.8 million tonnes in 2007/2008 (Defra).

(Source) Business Wire

Celebrity Loop and Vimation will be launching an interactive video and rich media player for premium online content. The Celebrity Interactive Media Channel solves challenges facing celebrities and premium content online today. It allows the celebrity to maintain control of their content online, creates an engaging interactive video experience for the fans and allows brands to sponsor the content.

Alyssa Milano, Mel B, of the Spice Girls, and Justin Berfield’s, actor/producer best known for the show “Malcom in the Middle”, new book, “Generation Fear,” published by Harper Collins, are the initial celebrities using the Celebrity Interactive Media Channel player, with a number of others preparing to start participating.

The player, using Vimation’s VIM Platform, lets fans interact directly with celebrity video and rich media content so they can engage with bonus content, slide-out videos, image galleries, biographical information and mini features. This interactive video capability enables the content owner to aggregate content to provide an enhanced video experience for fans to engage with content they are interested in.

(Source) Press

To the Harlem Globetrotters, this will mark their first appearance at the Wachovia Spectrum in Philadelphia. However, it looks like it may also be their last since the said stadium as the 42-year-old building is scheduled to be razed later this year.

The game will mark the team’s final appearance at the famous Spectrum — either inside it or on top of it — as the 42-year-old building is scheduled to be razed later this year. The team will return to the Philadelphia area later that week for games on Saturday, March 7 (at Temple University’s Liacouras Center at 1:00 p.m. and Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J. at 7:30 p.m.) and Sunday, March 8 at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center (12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.).

“The Spectrum was a highlight of every tour for the Globetrotters for so many years, and we’re honored to come back and pay it our respects in unique Globetrotter fashion,” said team CEO Kurt Schneider. “We’ve played in so many unique venues over our history, and this game will surely add to that legacy. You might say we are ‘over the top’ excited to play on the roof.”

The Globetrotters first played at the Spectrum on December 2, 1967, shortly after the building first opened. The team continued to play at the Spectrum every year until 1997, when their annual Philadelphia tour stop moved across the parking lot to the Wachovia Center.

(Source) Press

DJ Ravi Drums, the music director of “Howie Do It” will reportedly be taking his act at the 2009 Academy Awards slated on Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

Drums, who holds the distinction of being the first and only Indian American music director of a network TV show, will perform in the musical segment of the show, which will feature Best Original Song Nominees “Down to Earth” (Wall-E), “Jai Ho” (Slumdog Millionaire), and “O Saya” (Slumdog Millionaire). An elated Drums stated, “This is an incredible pop culture moment to be an Indian American. To be performing on the Oscars when a top contender has an Indian storyline makes me very proud.”

Ravi is the most unique of all the MD’s out there. He originates a hip, epic musical movement, having invented the simultaneous process of live drum playing and live re-mixing.

(Source) Press

NASCAR has made it public that their choice for this year’s endorser will be actor Kevin Costner. Celebrated on May 15, NASCAR Day is an opportunity for fans, corporations, schools and organizations across the country to make donations to The NASCAR Foundation to raise funds for its Family of Charities in an effort to help thousands of children live better lives.

Costner will appear in print, radio and television advertising to promote the industry’s charitable initiative. Past celebrity supporters for NASCAR Day include Will Ferrell, Kelly Clarkson, Garth Brooks and several NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers.

(Source) Newsday

Julia Ormond who had stints with “Legends of the Fall” and “Sabrina” appears in another movie in Lifetime Movie Network’s “The Wronged Man” in November 2009. Mahershalalhashbaz Ali (The 4400), Ormond’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button co-star, also joins the cast as an African-American husband and father convicted of raping a young girl.

The film is based on the true story of an unlikely friendship between paralegal Janet Gregory (Ormond) and Calvin Willis (Ali) as they fight to overturn his sentence and restore faith in the justice system. The Wronged Man, from executive producer Gale Anne Hurd’s (The Incredible Hulk) Valhalla Motion Pictures and Sony Pictures Television, will begin production this month.

(Source) Press