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Posted at 9:35 a.m., Thursday, January 10, 2008

MySpace gives celebrities their own space

By GARY STRAUSS
USA Today

Celebrities have a new home on one of the Internet's most popular social networking sites.

MySpace launches its Celebrity Channel today (celebrity.myspace.com), a move that will allow the site's 110 million users virtual one-stop access to the personal pages and blogs of more than 300 actors, musicians, athletes and other high-profile types.

As a marketing and PR tool, the channel — which includes exclusive star content ranging from interviews to video — could be a bonanza for both celebs and the NewsCorp.-owned site. And by providing a common entry point, the channel could attract big advertisers and serve as a promotional platform for Fox films and TV.

Even as snarky gossip sites such as TMZ.com join the tabloids as repositories of churlish celebrity news and unflattering paparazzi shots, celebrities are using the Net for image-burnishing and spin control.

Recently, Jennifer Love Hewitt blogged at safesearching.com to fire back at unflattering online bikini photos (taken at a Hawai'i beach) and comments. "A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be," she wrote.

"If you don't grab this real estate, someone else will be talking for you," notes veteran Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman of Fifteen Minutes. "A hit network show gets maybe 20 million viewers. MySpace is a much bigger audience."

Actress Olivia Wilde ("House," "The OC") launched a MySpace page this week. She'll use it in part to market "The Fix," an upcoming theatrical release directed by husband Tao Ruspoli. "This is a chance to represent myself and let people know things I'm excited about," says Wilde, who also stars in the low-budget film.

NBC News/"Today" show correspondent and "Access Hollywood" host Maria Menounos, well-versed in media and celebritydom, says the accessibility of a mainstream celebrity channel should help feed a "24/7, celebrity-crazed world."

She'll launch a MySpace page shortly. "It's a unique vehicle to talk about whatever I want to get out there," says Menounos, citing a recent interview with Hillary Clinton.

Actress Emmy Rossum says her MySpace blog helped her gain confidence as she recorded her first album. "The labels were like, 'just hang tight.' But I wanted those initial tracks out there, so I started a MySpace blog," she says. Within minutes, Rossum had 40 critiques.

Kevin Aylward, creator of the annual Weblog Awards, says stars are becoming increasingly Web-savvy about their image. "Celebrities will figure out how to use their blogs to beat the paparazzi at their own game," he says. "If stars took the pictures themselves and posted them immediately, they'd be giving away for free what the paparazzi are trying to sell."