In 2001, a website briefly attracted attention by publishing Britney
Spears’ Guide to Semiconductor Physics. It was, said Scientific
American, “one of the stranger approaches to teaching science that
we’ve seen lately”. For me, however, it was a sign of changing times.
Originally one part of the internet (a network of networks) was SPAN,
the Space Physics Analysis Network, and the web was invented at Cern,
Europe’s atom-smashing centre, to help make scientific papers more
readily available. Today, it’s used to track the orbits of Britney
Spears, Paris Hilton and other “stars” unknown to space physics.

Perez Hilton, Pink is the New Blog, PopSugar, Just Jared, E! Online,
TMZ … There are dozens of them, all much the same, albeit some are
snarkier than others. They all focus on celebrity indiscretions and
wardrobe malfunctions, heavily illustrated with paparazzi photos and
snatched videos.

The thing is, nowadays not even high court judges can get away with
not knowing who Paris Hilton is (assuming it’s possible not to know),
or Madonna or Amy Winehouse, but the lesser lights are harder to
track. Something like TMZ is one way to keep in touch. And if TMZ
misses anything, it has a terrific blogroll on its front page, with
links to a vast array of sites from Absolute Punk to Young, Black and
Fabulous. (Sorry, I wish it went from Aargh! to Yeeeah!)

TMZ stands for the Thirty-Mile Zone around Hollywood, beyond which
stars were “on location”. In sum, it’s the centre of the celebrity
universe. However, at least one other city is known to exist – Las
Vegas – mainly because H-Wood celebs go there to party or, sometimes
accidentally, get married. But TMZ also has plenty of political
coverage, at least during elections. Recent examples include
Unprotected Sex Has Its Perks, and McCain’s VP – Beaver Roundup.

TMZ’s blog-style home page has little news and even less to read,
though stories are sometimes picked up by mainstream media. But casual visitors are more likely to be attracted by the photo and video
galleries, or by the celebrity listings section. This shows Britney
Spears (1,408 stories) streaking ahead of Paris Hilton (893) and
Lindsay Lohan (598). Other significant figures include Nicole Richie
(196), Brad & Angelina (148), Madonna (137) and Pamela Anderson (120). However, any “naughty bits” are obscured by little stars.

TMZ loves collecting groups of photos around a common theme, such as celebrity tattoos, or celebrity yachts. For the Olympics, it did
Olympic butts. Some are presented as quizzes: can you guess the star
from the six-pack? (No, I can’t.)

While some celebrity sites are done by amateurs for fun, TMZ is a
serious business. It was launched in 2005 by AOL and Warner Brothers’
Telepictures Productions, both of which are owned by the mighty Time
Warner. In 2007, it followed up its web success with TMZ on TV, a
programme syndicated on Fox and other local stations across America.
At least for now, it seems there’s plenty of cash in trash.

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