Winnipeg Free Press - July 15th
WITH MTV’s docu-soap The Hills wrapping up this past Tuesday, cast members are busy looking for new work. Although he hasn’t be featured as prominently in the final season, Spencer Pratt has been an important part of the show, holding down his spot as one of the most hated villains on TV. Currently separated from his wife Heidi Montag, he is engaging in a war of words on Twitter with celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton.
The brains behind Fox’s ill fated Princes of Malibu and the producer of the upcoming show Fist Pump for Love, featuring Snooki’s ex-boyfriend Emilio Masella, Pratt already has the ball rolling on a new career. Along with a number of reality shows in development, Pratt has also started up a paparazzi agency and has recently launched a new blog.
A skilled headline maker and manipulator of the media, it isn’t surprising that Pratt has started up a pap agency. Although he has a long way to go before he competes with TMZ and Perez, expect KingSpencer.com to get a lot of traffic over the next few months and become a major player in the Hollywood gossip game.
Only around for a week, the site has already posted exclusive images and video of the stars of MTV’s Jersey Shore, SNL’s Chris Kattan and Sylvester Stallone.
BACK for a fourth season, AMC’s Mad Men recently landed a whopping 17 Emmy nominations and is probably the most anticipated show of the summer TV season.
Last year, AMC came up with a unique viral marketing site where you could “Mad Men Yourself” and then upload your avatar to your favorite social-networking site. Mad Men isn’t the first program to do this (The Simpsons did it to promote its movie), but it turned out to be a real hit with fans of the show. Along with subtly promoting the series, it let users immerse themselves in the SSRq60s-era drama.
The online tool has new clothes, accessories and backgrounds. Expect to see a lot of these avatars on social-networking sites over the next couple weeks.
Mad Men returns to the air on AMC on July 25.
Diddy BlogLOOK out, Kayne West, fellow hip-hop superstar P. Diddy has decided that he wants to be a blogger, too. Based around five categories (Inspire, Believe, Feel, Create, Love and Grow), Diddy has been posting video content and writing up interesting things he comes across on the web.
395 Photos Taken on Cellphones
CHANCES are if you have a cellphone, it has a digital camera as one of the features. While your pictures can come out dark, shaky or blurry if you don’t pay attention, this collection of 395 cellphone photos from Gizmodo.com proves that you can leave your camera at home and not worry about missing that amazing moment — if you handle things right.
Anthony Augustine is a freelance music, technology and pop culture writer who spends way too much time in front of a computer. Got a site you think he should see? Email him at anthony.siteunseen@gmail.com or follow him at twitter.com/anthonya.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 15, 2010 E3
