Humanizing celebrity

CEBU, Philippines -  One of the most popular microbloggers is MC Hammer, the ‘90s rap star who has remade himself in the last decade as an Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of the video site DanceJam.com. He has more than 157,000 “followers” — users who receive his Twitter feed.

“It creates a new form of communication where we can actually see each other as people, humanizing the celebrity,” said Hammer, who was born Stanley Burrell. “To me, it’s a great human interaction that happens.”

Hammer doesn’t have a problem exposing his private life — he’ll star in a reality series for A&E this spring — and he enjoys the lack of a filter between him and his fans.

“Most of the time you hear something from a celeb when there’s a new project coming — ‘My new movie is coming,’ ‘My new album is coming.’ You only see them in those sound bites,” said Hammer. “But with the Twitter platform, you’re not only able to see what his or her life is like on a day-to-day basis ... but hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute.”

Many stars already have their own blogs, but postings on blogs frequently are announcements or messages (think Lindsay Lohan expressing her support of Obama). With Twitter, there needs to be no purpose, no meaningfulness.

With Armstrong, one gets a sense of — among other things — his daily workout routine while he pursues his cycling comeback: “Heading out for a ride. Got 5 hours today. Just rollin’ around.”

Stephen Fry, the British comedian and most popular Twitter celeb with 281,000 followers, supplies a constant flow of wry observations. Recently, Fry even appeared to send messages while riding a donkey on a trip to Mexico: “You have to hand it to these beasts. Their sure-footedness is a miracle. Millions of years to perfect 4-hoofed precision.”

Ashton Kutcher and his wife, Demi Moore, (who posts under the name “mrskutcher”) are the most famous Twitter couple, and their tweets often reflect against each other. One from Kutcher: “this just in demi doesn’t pee or poop or fart ... ever.”