I have a funny habit that drives my husband crazy. After we watch a movie, I am compelled to look up the movie on IMDB and read about all the actors who were in it. I usually read a lot of reviews and visit the main movie website too. If I find the actors interesting I'll do searches on all of them as well. Doesn't everyone do this? I mean, this, to me, is one of the main reasons the internet was invented.
So, last year I saw a couple of movies with Edward Norton (The Illusionist and The Painted Veil, to be specific). I started Googling him and was surprised to find that he doesn't have his own website. Basically the main results for him include his IMDB page, his Wikipedia page, and a couple of fan sites. The fan sites are poorly done and infrequently updated, and frankly not very much fun to visit.
Now, everyone one knows that Norton is pretty reclusive - doesn't like doing interviews and keeps his private life pretty private. That's totally fine with me. It's one of the reasons he seems very cool. When you go to an Ed Norton movie, you don't really know what he's like in real life, which helps him disappear into a character on-screen.
However, it also means that there's no reliable place to get info about his projects and causes. He does a ton of work for charity, and I think it would be great if he could link to all of the websites related to his charitable work. This would mean additional publicity (and links) for some really great causes.
He doesn't need a tell-all website where he talks about who he's dating and what he ate for dinner and what his favorite food is. He doesn't need any kind of user-generated content (like forums, etc). Just something simple and classy where he can share information when and if he wants to.
Anyway, I don't think he should be afraid of the internet. There's always going to be information - and misinformation - about famous people. He should jump in and embrace all of the positive things that go along with having a website. You can do it, Ed!
Wow, ok a few things.
First of all regarding IMDB - I do the exact same thing. In fact I'm usually watching TV with my laptop so my research is live. And if the actresses are particularly attractive I'll also do a few image searches on them as well.
I like reading everything about a movie or TV show - including the trivia and quotes.
If it is a show like House M.D. - I'll also look up all of the medical conditions they talk about as well all of the treatments.
So yeah... that's kind of my life.
On to Ed Norton. This guy is a Marylander (yay us!). Not only did he grow up in Columbia MD - a short hop and skip across the county line - his grandfather was also the developer of the town.
My father sold new homes when I was a teen. He's pretty good at selling things and he probably sold half the homes in our neighborhood. And since he was also pretty popular around town even the people who didn't know him directly - knew of him. By extension everyone knew me as Vince's son - a label which came with its own notoriety.
I can't imagine what it would have been like to be the grandson of the guy that basically put the city together. It literally did not exist before the man got to work on it in the late 50's and early 60's.
Columbia is a beautifully planned out town. It has man made lakes, wonderfully landscaped and tree-lined roads and neighborhoods.
It was basically made up of about a few dozen farms that his grandfather bought in secret. I found an old book about the development of Columbia online somewhere and bought it. For someone like me that geeks out on real estate - its a pretty cool read.
Other than Columbia his grandfather is famous for developing (or redeveloping) and revitalizing both the Baltimore and Norfolk waterfronts.
Ed Norton is one of my favorite actors not only for his talent (I hated his character but I loved him as an actor in Rounders), but also because he's a Marylander and his grandfather is one of my real estate developer idols.
So yeah - he needs a website and a blog so I can stalk him online just like you want to do ;-)
Posted by: Vinny | January 16, 2009 at 06:52 PM
Stalk? Why, I simply want to conduct some research. And help Ed manage his online reputation :)
In the course of my, er, research, I do remember reading about Ed's grandfather (he invented the idea of the shopping mall, right?) and him growing up in that area.
I don't think I'm stretching things to far to say that EN got his sense of civic responsibility from his grandfather/family line, as he is very involved in quite a few 'save the earth' charities and foundations.
Thanks for stopping by, Vin :)
Posted by: Lori | January 16, 2009 at 06:58 PM