Much as leagues and teams are attempting to control athletes’ uses of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, CNET News is reporting that many movie studios are now trying to do the same thing with the stars of their movies.
Many studios are requiring their stars to sign anti-social networking clauses as a prerequisite to taking a movie deal. Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers are allegedly two of the first stars to be hit with a Twitter ban, in their case from Dreamworks in order to avoid them accidentally divulging any secrets from the upcoming Shrek sequel.
These moves are an attempt by Hollywood to curb leaks on the Internet – many of them coming from talent and executives. For example, Paula Abdul surprised Fox executives by announcing her decision to leave as a judge on American Idol on her Twitter account, leaving the network scrambling for a response.