Depp & Hilton Banned in China

As of July 1, Johnny Depp, Paris Hilton, roast pork and Garfield will be banned from China – their images only, not the actual objects – because according to the Chinese government, they may be damaging to your moral health.

The Chinese government has just passed a new law that states all personal computers sold in the country from July 1 onwards must have special internet filter software installed that is specially designed to block pornographic and violent images from being downloaded.

Among these blocked images is an obnoxious cartoon cat, a jail-bait socialite, a dead pig and Captain Jack Sparrow.

While I fully support the banning of Paris Hilton’s face (and in some aspects, Garfield, too), no one should be forced to live without the option to stare at Johnny Depp. It’s almost criminal, really.

[Source]

Tom Cruise Trying To Go Viral?

Could Tom Cruise be about to embark on a big online push to try and clean up his image and counter all of the bad publicity he has been receiving?

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is reporting that interesting things happening online concerning Tom Cruise, which indicate something is happening. For example,

“Google ads are now popping up for searches on “Tom Cruise” that say “Official Tom Cruise Site. Stay Tuned for the Official Launch of TomCruise.com. Check it out!” or alternatively “Official Tom Cruise Site. The Countdown is On. TomCruise.com launches May 5th. Get the scoop!”

This seems to be directly capitalizing on his recent appearance on Oprah, Tom’s people have been buying up Google adwords to try and direct people to officially sanctioned Tom Crusie sites, rather then the ones highlighting his nutty behavior.

Thanks to Mike and his fascination with Tom Cruise and all things celebrity (sorry Mike, your secret is out…. only joking) we have these extra pieces of info.

“The domain name was registered by an attorney, Benita Das, at the Los Angeles law firm Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger. Das is not listed as an attorney on the firm’s directory, but I did find a reference to her back in 2002. Is this one of the law firms that Tom Cruise uses? I have no idea. They do practice entertainment law, though.”

“The domain was first purchased on November 6, 1996, but very little was done with it until now. The last update to the whois information was April 28, 2008. My guess is that the law firm bought the domain name on Cruise’s behalf. That would explain why the attorney is the registered owner, at least for now.”

Sounds like Tom’s people may also be trying to create a bit of viral growth with this one. Knowing how these things can go, I could see this backfiring.

Can everyone say ANON?