Just what the world was waiting for! The NY Times reports that Arianna Huffington is starting a celebrity group blog with people like "Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman." Huh. Did Huffington read the Businessweek article about blogs changing business and decide, "It's on"? It'll be called Huffington Post, the NY Times article positions it as a competitor to The Drudge Report, but it seems less that than a celebrity vanity project like, oh, we don't know...maybe like an episode of The Love Boat with more street cred and an ability for readers to comments. Huffington says it's "an affirmation of [blogs'/the blogosphere's] success and will only enrich and strengthen its impact on the national conversation," but Sure, it'll be cool to read what Walter Cronkite thinks, but we fear he'll get bogged down with despamming the system. And don't get us started on wondering if certain celebrities are actually posting or making a minion post for them.
The quote from NYU professor and media world guru Jay Rosen to the Times:
These aren't exactly people who lack voice or visibility in our culture. Gwyneth Paltrow has no incentive to speak candidly and alienate future ticket buyers. Barry Diller doesn't have time to hunt down juicy links for his readers. And where does Jon Corzine fit into any conversation those two might be having?
Word! And even though it'll be fodder for many others to blog about (quick, someone register "huffingtonpostsucks.com" stat!), will they just be writing, "Hey, David Mamet is swearing again!" Maybe Gothamist is upset because it's one thing if your neighbor is blogging, but it's another thing if famous people start to act like shut-ins working on posts for the next day (not that we know anything about that).
Why didn't Huffington ask David Lynch to blog? His DavidLynch.com weather reports are AWESOME. And another thing: Warren Beatty may have an Oscar, but he's no Wil Wheaton.
Gawker covered this on Friday - which makes us wonder if any of the celebrity bloggers will be working Fridays.
