Gawker Stalker Ignites Controversy by Getting Celebs Fired Up

By Linda Orlando

For two years, Internet bloggers have been visiting Gawker.com to post details of celebrity sightings in various locations around the country. Given the public’s fascination with all things celebrity, many people find it interesting to follow the comings and goings of their favorite personalities. Having a website that keeps track of where celebrities have been spotted makes it easier for people to plant themselves in locations where celebrities may show up. Entertainment magazines such as People and The National Enquirer regularly offer tidbits about celebrity sightings for their readers.

Gawker.com’s latest addition to their site was met with praise by site visitors, but it has caused a storm of controversy among celebrities. The "Gawker Stalker" feature pinpoints the locations of the random celebrity sightings posted by readers, using a Google map of downtown Manhattan. The feature was instantly slammed by public notables complaining that because the irreverent feature gives locations that are often close to real-time spottings, it places the rich and famous in harm’s way with just the click of a mouse.

"Not at all," says the site’s editor, Jessica Coen. "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." But it’s the remainder of that "most part" that has celebrities worried. Famously protective celebrity publicists everywhere are up in arms. Stan Rosenfield, who represents George Clooney, told The Associated Press, "This is a dangerous thing. And for them to say that, if somebody gets hurt, ‘Don’t blame it on us because they’re public figures,’ it’s ridiculous…someone could get hurt over it. You don’t know who’s reading it."

The negative press is most likely only serving to help attract visitors to the site. Coen has had to hire two interns to help update the map daily with readers’ sightings, down to the exact time, restaurant, and cross streets. Sightings usually contain more than just location information, which makes the site vastly entertaining. Readers gobble up descriptions of sightings of people such as Nicole Richie ("petite and cute"), Naomi Campbell ("telling her assistant to hurry up"), Ashanti ("her perfume reeks") and Kenny Rogers ("looked exactly like he's had a ridiculous amount of work done"). Geraldo Rivera, spotted at Rockefeller Center, inspired one blogger to write, "Shorter than expected (aren’t they all), his moustache definitely greased into place and so tan he looked like he just popped out of an Easy Bake Oven."

Rosenfield thinks the site is taking advantage of the fact that there is no Internet governance that prevents this type of "dissemination of information." But Coen believes the map is essentially harmless. "We completely acknowledge that there are very many creepy people out there, but the truth is, if there is someone really intending to do a celebrity harm, there are much better ways to go about doing that than looking at the Gawker Stalker," Coen said. "If you're using the map to do that, you are a really bad stalker."

Clooney and his publicist have decided to mount an assault against Coen’s site. Clooney reportedly sent an e-mail, via Rosenfield, to many of his friends and associates asking them to flood the site with as many fake sightings as possible in an effort to render the site useless to readers. But instead of this causing anger, it only caused amusement, because Coen says she never thought the Gawker Stalker feature was particularly "useful" to begin with. "The moment we become useful," she says, "we’ve lost sight of what we’re all about—glorious, time-sucking impracticality." So in a playful parry, the site is advertising a new contest: "Stalk George Clooney, Win a Prize." The first person to submit an authentic photo of Clooney wins DVDs of both Ocean’s 11 and Ocean’s 12. And, the site says, if you can get a picture of him giving the camera the finger, they’ll even throw in a DVD of Solaris.