Actor Websites are Terrible - A Look at the Top 8

January 24th, 2008

I’ve been looking at celebrity websites a lot lately. My conclusion: actors have terrible websites. I’m not quite sure why. They have the money, they benefit from exposure, they all have something to sell. My best theory so far is that their managers just don’t care about the internet, and/or prefer that information about their clients goes through other media outlets.

According to Wikipedia these are the highest paid actors and actresses. I’m not sure how accurate the numbers are, but you get the point.

  1. Keanu Reeves
  2. Bruce Willis
  3. Tom Cruise
  4. Johnny Depp
  5. Julia Roberts
  6. Cameron Diaz
  7. Reese Witherspoon

  8. Angelina Jolie

Looking at these sites and their whois.net records gives me another idea. For a lot of actors their main experience with a personal website looks something like this:

  • Some guy registers “juliaroberts.com” in 1998 and tries to auction the name.
  • Julia sues on the advice of her lawyers.
  • The lawsuit continues for 10 years and Julia Roberts never wants to think about “juliaroberts.com” again.
  • A new actress, say 21 year-old Juno star Ellen Page, thinks “if Julia Roberts doesn’t need a website I don’t need one either.”
  • Some guy registers ellenpage.com.
  • …
Posted in Uncategorized

3 Responses to “Actor Websites are Terrible - A Look at the Top 8”

  1. 1 desirelines23
    January 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    you want a good website for a celebrity?

    http://www.aboutjulia.com/

    there

  2. 2 Jonathan Grubb
    February 5th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    Hey, that is a great site about Julia Roberts. It has a lot of the features that a good actor site should have, especially the focus on content and integration with other sites and social networks.

    I think a celebrity at her level could benefit from participation in internet community, both by having her own site that focuses on whatever she likes and by participating on existing sites like aboutjulia.com

  3. 3 Jason Burns
    July 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Welcome to town!

    Great post. Being an actor myself, I’ve always found it amusing that many in the profession neglect their own online presence. Most actors don’t seem to realize that they are a business, and branding is key to their success.

    By the way, check us out at la.metblogs.com. People from all walks of life writing about L.A.

    All the best.

    twitter.com/jasonburns

Leave a Reply