Britney Spears, Google+’s Ashton Kutcher

Britney Spears has done it again, and this time there’s no need for cloying interjections, the newly engaged singer gained the distinction of being the first person on Google+ to reach one million followers. Ashton Kutcher shares the same honor, but on a different network: Twitter.

There seems to have been a very concerted effort on behalf of Spears’ management to ferry her across the magic threshold because, as many have been pointing out, there’s an enormous section on her official homepage existing for the sole purpose of enjoining visitors to follow her on Google+.

Despite the still-somewhat uncertain merit of making it big on Google+, at least at this particular instance in time, the triumphant score will be something a great many Britney fans will be cheering. The Google+ achievement can certainly also be credited to her enduring popularity, and perhaps, also, to the nostalgia people feel for the era she defined. Critics and skeptics, as if we needed a clue, will no doubt patter on and on about the lack of competition from other major stars that Brit faces in the network that has been out only since the summer.

Either way, seems Google+’s tech adoring users have a soft spot for a singer.

Read More:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397948,00.asp

Demi Moore Makes Public Her Intention to Divorce Ashton Kutcher; He Confirms News Via Twitter

Ashton Kutcher, who last week handed over the management of his Twitter account to an editorial team, reacted via that same account to the public statements made by Demi Moore, his wife, concerning her decision to file for divorce. On Ashton’s Twitter feed appeared the following message:

I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi. Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail. Love and Light, AK

As it’s been extensively reported here and elsewhere, Kutcher, a TV and film actor, has been a very visible proponent of social media; he was the first person to reach a million followers on Twitter. The couple’s individual Twitter feeds were enormously popular. Kutcher and Moore said their marriage vows in September 2005. Demi Moore, who was previously married to Bruce Willis for almost 13 years, made her statements through the Associated Press.

“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton. As a woman, a mother and a wife there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life. This is a trying time for me and my family, and so I would ask for the same compassion and privacy that you would give to anyone going through a similar situation,” were Demi’s words.

Read more:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/11/17/national/a132757S69.DTL#ixzz1e6pwYEfC

Ashton Kutcher Hands Over His Twitter Account

Ashton Kutcher has just declared himself overwhelmed with the responsibility of managing his popular Twitter account. Today, the actor published a blog post acknowledging that the size of his following — 8 million and counting — demanded greater editorial supervision lest he became the unwitting source of misinformation. In his own words:

Up until today, I have posted virtually every one of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become too big to be managed by a single individual.

He continued:

It seems that today that twitter has grown into a mass publishing platform, where ones tweets quickly become news that is broadcast around the world and misinformation becomes volatile fodder for critics.

The words came a day after releasing this jewel of a tweet: “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste.” Kutcher got that 84-year-old Joe Paterno had been fired from his stint as Penn State’s football coach, but he didn’t catch the reason why. In 2002, Paterno did not inform the police about an eyewitness account he received concerning the possible sexual abuse of a minor at the hands of Jerry Sandusky, a perennial assistant coach for the University. Sandusky was arrested November 5th and charged with a long list of sexual crimes against minors.

Ashton is “going to turn the management of the feed over to [his] team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure, to ensure the quality of its content.” The actor’s mortification and subsequent action — stepping away from Twitter — makes sense if one recalls his outspoken engagement in the battle against human trafficking.

Read More:

http://aplusk.posterous.com/twitter-management

Ashton Kutcher Thinks Social Media is “Like a Manifestation of God”

Ashton Kutcher, who, these days, is very much unironically being called a “social-media influencer,” has been gearing up for his return to television since joining the cast of “Two and a Half Men” late last spring. Some finer points about his new role have begun to emerge and media commentators are already remarking on the “meta” aspects of his giving life to an “Internet mogul” christened — a la Hollywood — Walden Schmidt.

In an interview he gave to Details Magazine, Kutcher himself described his new character as being “somewhere between an alien and Jesus Christ,” claiming he couldn’t “be more specific than that.” In another choice description provided by the one-time Michael Kelso, Ashton had this to say about social media: “It’s almost like a manifestation of God… People used to behave morally because they thought God was always watching — in some ways God today is the collective, and the collective is watching.”

By their turn, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Kutcher’s television comeback, with its steadier schedule, will “allow him to focus on tech projects” at Katalyst Media, the production company he co-founded with Jason Goldberg in 2000; the company has had a social media division since 2005.

Read More:

http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/cover-stars/201109/ashton-kutcher-social-media-technology-guru

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/08/ashton-kutcher-two-and-a-half-men-sheen-details.html