Celebrities always complain about invasions of privacy, so when the gossip Web site Gawker allowed fans to post sightings of their favorite stars on a street map of Manhattan, it was bound to cause a stir.
Actors, models and their publicists screamed that "Gawker Stalker" could lead to real stalking. But one of Hollywood's biggest names has taken the battle back to the stalkers, with plans to sabotage the whole Web site.
George Clooney, Hollywood's current liberal beau, has hatched a plot to destroy Gawker Stalker by posting a flood of fake celebrity sightings, sending any deranged fans on futile quests around New York while their targets sleep easy.
"A couple of hundred conflicting sightings and this Web site is worthless. That's the fun of it," Clooney wrote in an e-mail to celebrity publicists that was then leaked to the New York Post.
Clooney's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said he knew of several sightings on the site of celebrities who were currently abroad.
However, Clooney's plans are unlikely to upset the people behind Gawker, whose Web site has become a must-read for tens of thousands of Manhattanites. The prospect of a showdown with Clooney appears to have only whetted Gawker's appetite for a fight: Gawker's editors said they were holding a competition for the first person to e-mail them a picture of Clooney in New York. Of course, they gave specific instructions on how to find him.
"He's staying at the Peninsula and filming around Midtown. He's teasing and testing us, and we will not look away. We love him too much to ignore him," their statement said.
Gawker Stalker's Web site contains a detailed street map of Manhattan that allows members of the public to post a celebrity sighting with a time and place. Recent sightings include Julia Roberts, Glenn Close, Scarlett Johansson ... and Clooney himself. The site also allows fans to post a comment, such as one person who described seeing Cate Blanchett dining at a Brooklyn bistro, adding: "She looked simply sophisticated in a black sweater, grey skirt and funky `fishnettish' tights. But, really, when does she not?"
Gawker editor Jessica Coen said there had been an over-reaction to the dangers posed by the Web site.
"Our spies are just regular people ... people that are excited to see someone they like. Our readers are, for the most part, a very educated, well-meaning bunch," she said.
However, for some publicists the site is far from a joke. They believe the Web site puts their clients at risk of attack, or at least makes the task of those seeking to harm them much easier.
"I have two words: `Rebecca Schaeffer,'" Rosenfield said, referring to the 21-year-old television star who was killed in California in 1989 by an obsessed fan.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of