New Season Brings New Controversy and Social Networking for Idol Contestants

The addition of Ellen to the judges panel is not the only change for American Idol this year--for the first time in Idol history contestants are allowed to have profiles on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook. In the previous eight seasons social networking was banned for contestants and any pre-existing profiles were deleted before contestants became part of the show.

Now all of the top 24 Idol contestants have been given profiles on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook. All of their profiles were created by Fox and it is not clear what the exact rules for the profiles will be. If you want to keep up with your favorite contestants online you can find a complete list of all of their online profiles here.

This season may have added online profiles, but it did not loose any of its drama and controversy. Chris Golightly, who called himself an orphan when we were first introduced to him on the show, has been kicked out of the top 24 and replaced by Tim Urban.

“It has been determined that Chris Golightly is ineligible to continue in the competition,” a press release from FOX said. “American Idol contestant Tim Urban has replaced Golightly as part of the Top 24.”

Fox has not given the reason why Golightly was taken out of the competition. Another contestant Michael "Big Mike" Lynch was also reportedly booted from the show in late January because his father broke the show's rules of confidentiality by talking to a Florida newspaper. However last night the top 24 was revealed and Lynch's profile is currently still up on American Idol's website.

And on an unrelated Idol note, last night was the first time in six years that Idol did not have the top ratings for its night, instead NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics took the top spot.

Attention Facebook Users

Facebook caused a pretty big controversy earlier this year after undergoing changes in its terms of use, which would allow the social networking site to use whatever content members upload onto the site - even after accounts are closed. Now, Facebook is being criticized again after one user saw a picture of his wife - in an advertisement for "hot singles." Apparently, your photo could be appearing in ads without your permission or knowledge. Luckily, you can opt-out, and here's how:

• Go to facebook/settings/privacy settings
• Select News Feed and Wall
• Click on the Facebook Ads tab
• In the drop-down menu next to “Appearance in Facebook Ads” select “Noone”.

Lindsey Lohan is Stressed

Image Source: Gio Rocks!

In between her hectic schedule of buying ratty clothes, getting flour bombed and making cocktails on the sly, Lindsay Lohan has written a couple of posts about her "friend" Samantha Ronson (PLEASE -- we can see this from space!) and her hatred for Facebook.

Sometime this morning, Lindsay posted this on her MySpace:

oy vey! rumors..

just to clear this up.. because i have been getting a lot of emails asking me this one question.

samantha ronson and lindsay lohan (me) are NOT breaking up
:)

Right. Got it. Thanks, mama. We needed to know.

Then, yesterday, La Lolo (Hawaiian, "crazy") wrote about how she's having a fight with Facebook.

Her life is, like, seriously, really stressful:


i signed onto facebook with my new password because someone keeps hacking into my account, and when i typed my password and "log in" name in, a red sentence came up saying..

Account Disabled
Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

wow! i was in shock. i clicked on the link that they told me to click on and then to another link that said: my account may of been disabled by mistake. once i got to that it gave a note saying why it was disabled which stated the note saying that it was disabled because they believe that i was a fake of myself. genius. here i am loving facebook (as well as myspace-hehe) but going on facebook to talk to some of my friends and they are thinking that I AM THE "FAKE" OF MYSELF!!! hahahahahaha.. at first i laughed, and then i got angry. angry because, with ALL the people that PRETEND to be me on facebook, they decide to say I AM THE FAKE- of myself. all i can think is, WHO is running this site? and how can they just "disable" my account without first, sending me a warning notice, or AT LEAST asking me some account verification questions. here they are re-designing the look on the site when they should be setting up a more secure way of allowing people to set up an account. i wasn't even under my name, i had a fake name on my account because, obviously i didn't want everyone on facebook to know it was me.

maybe i am just venting, but i am also writing this blog in hopes that the people at facebook will un-disable my account and allow me to sign in the EXACT same way it was, same friends, same emails, same "pets" and so on..

phew! i'm glad i got that off my chest, i needed to let it out somewhere, and myspace has always been the best place for me to do it, especially if i hope for something to change....

MySpace is definitely the place to instigate change, Linds.

Checking in with the NETFLIX Movie Watching World Championship

The NETFLIX Movie Watching Championship is underway in New York's Times Square. Be sure to follow all the action on Facebook or at the YouTube Netflix Now Playing Channel!
Richard Simmons made a hilarious visit, check out the video below:

Enter The World Movie Watching Championships!

To enter this competition, you can either make your own three minute training video. Show how you will prepare for the event, mentally and physically! OR make a three minute video telling why you are interested in competing in the event and why you think you've got what it takes to win!

Check out this Facebook page for more information on this cool competition! Official rules and more guidelines are available there, good luck! Happy movie watching!

Microsoft Buys Facebook!

Microsoft just beat out Google to purchase 1.6% of Facebook for a whopping $240 million.

That values the social networking site at $15 billion. Yes, billion! This makes 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg one very rich man.

Microsoft will soon be the exclusive advertising platform for Facebook. And speaking of Facebook, if you are on it, we want to be your friend! Search for us and friend us! "POP."