Myspace Celebrity Sites: Are They Real?

Actor Steve McQueen is alive and well and living on Myspace...even though he died in 1980. I can verify this, as Steve McQueen is one of my Myspace friends. Celebrities, dead and/or alive are well represented on the many social networking sites. So how do you know if the sites are real?

Many celebrity-oriented sites on Myspace are pretty clearly identifiable as fan sites. That is, the person who opened the site isn't putting himself out there as the celebrity.

That said, many famous people are big in the social networking scene. For example, comedian Jay Mohr has often joked in his act that he has been a Myspace addict from early on. Many people doubt the legitimacy of any celebrity site, but the fact is Myspace is a great public relations tool, particularly for comedians, writers and bands. Celebrities use it as another tool to stay in touch with fans, promote new work and keep old work alive.

Back to the same question: how do you know if it's real? Well, unless you know the celebrity personally, there's no real way to know. However, you can get a few clues. Most of it falls into the category of "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck."

Of all of my celebrity Myspace friends, I'm only certain that two of the sites belong to the celebrity and are upkept by the celebrity. Both are musicians, one a former American Idol, another a member of a world-class band who tours with the Trans Siberian Orchestra as well as during the off season in a very different musical genre.

Clues you should investigate:

Dead or alive. If the celebrity is dead, you can bet the page has been put up by someone else. This is an easy distinction. Others aren't so clear cut.

Photos. If there are photos, are the majority of the photos of the publicity still genre or genuine photos with a variety of fans or even just photos the person has taken himself. The more generic the site is, the better the odds are that it's being run by a fan.

The biographical information. How well do you know the celebrity? I know a lot of bizarre trivia such as birthdates, birth places. More than once I've spotted a fake site because the information didn't match up with what I know to be real.

The expanded biography. Many fan sites read like they lifted the words off the back of an old album cover. It's not colloquial, and reads more in the third person than in the first "I" person.

The initial search. When you look for friends, using the celebrity's name, do you find many listings? These are generally easy to ferret out. Check the dates on the site. For example, if it was created a long time ago, contains little or no photos and little or no information, that's a site some fan started on a whim. Or, if the site hasn't been logged onto for some time, that's another giveaway that it's a fan site. If a celebrity creates a page for publicity, he's not going to let it go unmanned.

Most of the celebrities who design a Myspace page for publicity and to connect with the fans find they just don't have the time to maintain it. Ultimately, they hire someone to continue the site.

Check out www.myspacecelebrities.com to find Myspace pages devoted to your favorite celebrities. Use the guidelines above if you want to figure out if the site is sponsored by the celebrity, but most of all enjoy. Think of it as reading your favorite gossip magazine.