Lonelygirl15 Exposed
Category: Entertainment, Gossip, Her Diary, Personality
Bree (also known as Lonelygirl15, real name Jessica Rose) is a cute home-schooled girl that has been heating up the Internet like few others today as a controversial user at the popular video hosting website YouTube, whose vlogs have elicited mass popularity and speculation as to her authenticity. The mystery has fueled the popularity of the short videos that are a staple on a growing number of Web sites devoted to posting homemade entertainment. Is she real? Or is she merely an actress and, if so, who are the people responsible for mounting the charade?
This Internet whodunit centers on 16-year-old Bree’s “Lonelygirl15″ online video diaries posted on sites such as YouTube and MySpace. They’ve caused a cyber-stir not seen since “The Blair Witch Project.” The most notable Web hoax related to movie publicity was for the 1999 film “The Blair Witch Project.” Footage from an alleged documentary about a mysterious video tape and missing teens created a buzz on the Web that helped boost the film’s box-office success.
On the “Bree” short video’s show, whose famous with YouTube nickname Lonelygirl15, “Bree” is sitting in her typical-looking teenage room, introducing herself and making a variety of goofy faces. Bree talks about her parents, her friend Daniel and her “religion,” which includes a mysterious ritual Bree has been selected for. The mystery deepens. In her room is what looks like a shrine to the occult figure Aleister Crowley, leading many Bree-watchers to assume she is involved in some kind of Satanic cult.
According to YouTube, Bree’s video have been viewed by more than 2.3 million people. So far, she has posted more than 30 videos with the latest entry posted September 10, and one of the most popular sites for amateur videos, 26,930 people are subscribed to the Lonelygirl15 “channel,” .
Many feature people just sitting in front of video cameras, talking about the mundane happenings in their lives or ranting about some issue or another.
Several weeks ago, rumors began to fly that Bree was not a genuine teen blogger at all, but an actress playing a part in scripted and produced drama. The proof, it was said, is that Bree never reacts on-screen to comments posted about her, never wavers from the plot. “She’s just a little too charming, her videos a little too well edited, and her story a little too neatly laid out,” Adam Sternbergh wrote in the New York magazine late last month.
So far, even as media attention heats up about her authenticity, Bree has yet to react in her videos. Fans began to speculate that the videos were part of a big marketing campaign for some movie and bristled at being manipulated by some Hollywood studio.
The marketing theory surrounding Lonelygirl15 was bolstered when amateur sleuths uncovered that the name was trademarked recently by Encino attorney Kenneth Goodfried, a trademark application for “lonelygirl15″ was filed on August 22, 2006.
Web detectives also concluded that Bree’s MySpace account was being controlled by someone using a computer at the Hollywood talent firm Creative Artists Agency. An agency spokesman did not immediately return a call but then came the announcement posted on the mock fan site Lonelygirl15.com (website could not be accessed) stating that Bree was indeed an actress. The “Creators,” who describe themselves as filmmakers but not part of a big corporation, go on to promise a new Web site featuring interactive storytelling where “the line between ‘fan’ and ‘star’ has been removed, and dedicated fans like yourselves are paid for their efforts.”
” To Our Incredible Fans.” The noted was began on the Lonelygirl15.com’s website
“Thank you for enjoying our show so far. We are amazed by the overwhelmingly positive response to our videos; it has exceeded our wildest expectations.”
It goes on to say:
“Right now, the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is ‘who is she?’ We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us.”
“With your help we believe we are witnessing the birth of a new art form,†they wrote. On the question of lonelygirl15″ identity, the creators attempted to invest her with everyman qualities.
Soon after the message was posted, the Web site could not be accessed. It was running again over the weekend, where two new episodes were posted, but was only intermittently available on Monday.
The revelation that Bree was fake initially angered fans on YouTube, who suspected Lonelygirl15 was a slick Hollywood attempt to advertise some upcoming movie or TV show. But since the creators revealed the fictitious nature of the show last week, the number of people subscribing to the Lonelygirl15 channel on YouTube has skyrocketed.
Tags: Lonelygirl15
