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Gawker is launching their new map feature today. It's a pretty simple concept: each day they'll have an intern manning an email address, and as "Gawker Stalker" missives come in, the intern will plot them on a map. This way, you can stalk your favorite celebrities in real time. Why you would want to stalk Lindsay Lohan is beyond us-- but that's an entirely different story. The new map feature brings up some obvious security and privacy issues. The Daily News gets the requisite PR flack quotes:
"As innovative as it might be, it dangerously puts these people in harm's way. Somebody's going to get hurt," warned flack Leslie Sloane Zelnik, who reps Lohan, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and other soft targets."These people are trying to lead a normal life, and I think at some point the government is going to have to step in and regulate this. I really think this crosses a line."
PR divo Ken Sunshine — who reps DiCaprio, Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck — called the new Gawker feature "unbelievable."
"I do wish they were funnier and spent less time inviting scary stalkers to go where celebrities might be — particularly celebrities with children," Sunshine complained.
For a response, we went straight to the source: Jesse Oxfeld, the boy-half of Gawker's editorial team:
gothdaddy: delaying the notifications by an hour or two would probably prevent someone from gunning down justin timberlake, right?gawkdaddy: One would imagine. But keep in mind, it's not like we have traffic cams around the city. We're still limited by people getting back to their office, or getting up in the morning, or whatever, and remembering to email in the tip. So Timberlake should be safe. Sadly.
gothdaddy: what about the women and children? doesn't brittany deserve her privacy when pushing the federletus around soho?
gawkdaddy: You mean Britney Spears and the baby whose picture got her on the cover of People magazine back in November?
gothdaddy: i see you've played the "won't someone please think of the children" game before. touche.
gothdaddy: celebrities don't keep banking hours, and new yorkers won't accept a 9-to-5 monitoring service. have you made arrangements for the interns to work 24 hours a day, and if so, how?
gawkdaddy: Hiring and scheduling are well beyond my purview. But Denton has a remarkable ability to keep the slaves toiling, as we've all seen. I have faith.
Truer words were never spoken!
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I read Gawker, finding it somewhat amusing at times and somewhat informative at other times.
But, for god's sake, let's leave these people alone. Most celebs who live in NYC simply want to live their life, blend in and enjoy what NYC offers (theatre, music, food, etc.). When I spot a celeb in my travels, a simple nod of the head or smile communicates "I know who you are and I appreciate what you do." My neighborhood is the home to many minor celebs who have chosen that neighborhood because they want a normal life for themselves (and, often, for their children). Let's give it to them.
On the other hand, if the celeb is an obvious putz, documenting their putzhood can do us all some good (I guess I'm referring to the Lohans, Timberlakes and others).
12:31 - Gem Spa newstand on 8th & 2nd - spotted jesse oxfeld leafing through star and soldier of fortune magazines and stuffing himself with ring ding jrs. He was getting crumbs in the pages and putting them back on the rack. He bought a penis extender pump, then left with his purchase in a brown paper sack.
What about the celebs that cry out for attention.
Crying Won't somebody look at ME. Pay attention to me, not at the cute baby.
You know the one's who get pissed when someone not know who they are or get miffed when not enough attention is paid to them.
Anyway, I think you'll find many New yorkers do leave them alone. I certainly do.
But like you mentioned if one is particularly irksome, then by all means, give us the juicy details.
I saw Parker Posey at Murray's bagels on 6th Ave & 13th Street the other morning. She didn't have her little kickable dog with her though.
That Jesse is a slob, huh?
What a lame job for an intern...they can't even pay some guy in India a few cents to type these in?
oh, wow, it's a google maps mashup... *yawn*
privacy debates aside, i find the "because we can" application of the technology a titch unnecessary. if i were a stalker, though, i'd love it.
I'm okay with this. There's little chance that it can be used for actual stalking. Though Gawker Stalker is a useless pursuit, at least the map will give some chronological and geographical order to what used to be really disorganized.
i saw jon mcenroe at the strokes concert
meanwhile, if somebody set up a site to track the movements of nick denton, jen chung, and jake, complete with google maps tracking, you would DEFINITELY get some people freaking out and calling it stalking. keep in mind that all the above names are just as much "public figures" as the celebrities mentioned. people don't take this stuff seriously until it effects them directly. nick denton in particular seems to relish his privacy, so it would only be fair for such a site to pop up monitoring all his moves. I agree with the other poster, let the celebs who live in new york live their lives in peace.
CELEBRITIES!!!!
Now that we have your attention...
GOOGLE MAPS!!!
Put them together. And. Yeah. Okay. Whatever.
The appeal of Gawker Stalker to me is the fact there was slight celebrity fawning mixed in with a bit of indifference. That's it. Specific locations never meant anything because... Who cares?
I think the way the map mashup was done is creative and one of the better map mashups I've seen, but the overall impact is not that impressive. Knowing that there are tons of celebrities hanging around the Village is news to nobody.
#2 and #4, who the f**k are these "celebrities"? C-list posers?
Gawker should at least have a minimum standard of a mid B for these celebrity sighting posts.
So far, from what I can see, the reports posted at Gawker have been friendly in nature, ans late enough so that there aren't any throngs of people harrassing the celebrities. It will be interesting to see if the system lasts or if the "Gawker Stalkers" stop reporting.
When I think of what happened to John Lennon, a man who could be role modeling peace right now, this is 100% not worth it. A lot of people think celebrities deserve paparazzi because these people are jealous of the bodies and the money (most of which goes to hiring bodyguards for HELLO...stalking!) The only retribution these celebrities have is giving women anorexia and making men max out their credit cards.
But what is sadder than being a self-seeking celebrity (which there are few 1% Hiltons), is being a self-seeking stalker. The truth is the paparazzi are making as much money as these celebrities! And what is sadder than those psychos who listen to their favorite celebrity pee in the bathroom & run in to use the same toilet paper. Give them a GPS system you say?Remember that stalkers don't gun down the Federlines, they go after the productive heroes and heroines and geniuses because of the power they get out of making a black hole in society.
This new site is really for mental cases, who feel their only worth is seeing people whose worth in our society is questionable compared to teachers, civil rights advocates, authors, and social workers. If it was you, you'd sue and move to New Guinea.
Brilliant!
I don't think the real-time stalking is much of a concern (at least not until they automate it to direct-publish SMS tips) but keep it up for a year and you'll be able to data mine a statistically-likely profile of where a celebrity lives, works, eats, shops and what time of the day/week he or she does all those things.
The Internet is really good at creating a coherent picture out of tiny disparate pieces of data. Welcome to celebrity in the 21st century.