Why Jessica Rose is a bigger star than La Lohan

[milowent]

Entertainment and gossip sites are all over the internet. And part of the nature of entertainment gossip is that people want to know the scoops as they are happening. They need to know, and know now! This benefits terrible shows like Access Hollywood, but also websites that are not only unafraid to talk about Britney's latest exploits, but that will show every picture they can find too.

Now I believe that the nature of internet news/gossup sites is that they tend to blow up internet-based stories, as they are all sharing the same backyard. For example, sites like TMZ (the gossip site most responsible for outing Bree), The Daily Reel and Geeksugar have posted blurbs about lonelygirl15 frequently. If something happens on the internet, its easy and and frankly natural for an internet-based outlet to consider it very newsworthy and post about it. Its the internet promoting the internet, in a roundabout way.

So, in the last week a few pictures of Jessica Rose with Lindsay Lohan have popped up on the internet (the 1st I saw was at TMZ). We know Lohan is a much bigger star than Jessica right? And we also know that Jessica's role is this film is not very big, right?

Yet, I'm seeing Jessica's star shining very brightly when the Lohan movie is discussed.

For example, Big Picture Radio says:

"LonelyGirl15, aka Jessica Rose, has reportedly parlayed YouTube success into a co-starring gig in a future Lindsay Lohan movie. Moviehole has the story, and if I were Jessica, I'm not sure how to take the news. On the one hand, it is a major motion picture. On the other, relying on Lindsay Lohan to generate interest for your film at this point is kind of like buying the deed on a hilltop home in Southern California when it's raining."

OK, now Rose is "co-starring" with lohan. A big elevation in status. And, not only that, but the writer here apparently feels that using Lohan for "your film" (ie., Rose's film apparently) is a bad idea for Jessica Rose. Someone reading this cold might well conclude that Rose is a bigger star than Lohan!

Another fun article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald online. (link) Ok, the SMH is Australian and close to Rose's New Zealand roots, but its funny to see the article note that "a number of photos of Rose and Lohan [note, that;s Rose and Lohan, not Lohan and Rose] on the set of the film have cropped up on celebrity gossip websites."

And the focus is all on Jessica:

Oh, the glory of fame! "Brought up in New Zealand, Rose shot to stardom after she appeared as the home-schooled teenager "Bree" in a series of video blogs, posted on YouTube under the alias Lonelygirl15."

Elsewhere, website Geeksugar notes that Lonelygirl15 co-stars with Lohan, and Glitteratigossip reveals that she "will star opposite" Lohan. The hype is everywhere and growing. But maybe its not hype.

Conclusion: Jessica Rose is a bigger star than Lindsey Lohan. If you dare disagree, please speak up. :-)

EDIT TO ADD: One thing I forgot to add. If you add up all the views of all lg15 videos on youtube, you have a TREMENDOUS number of people that have seen her. And its going up everyday. How many people are renting the Parent Trap today, right?

[Tempestarii]

Well it could be worse, she could be opening a gig for Britney Spears.

I do not think she is as big as Lohan right now, the major sites like Perez Hilton, X17online, Dlisted, etc have not mentioned Jess at all, which is a blessing probably if you look at the content of Perez Hilton.

Everyone wants a new starlet to focus on so TMZ is probably trying to raise her profile as the new thing. It might be beneficial for her publicity if she actively latched onto Lohan and co and got seen. With her talent which was obvious in the early vlogs and appeal as a fresh faced and lithe newcomer it would not be hard for her to gain access to well known clubs. So far Miss Rose does not seem to be one for mingling and networking which I can only say is negative for her publicity.

Sure someone like Lohan gets bad press, but anyone in her 'entourage' gets noticed. Kim Kardashian's porn video would have made no news if she was not seen at the hot spots and hanging around with Paris Hilton.

Going by Jess's lack of interaction with fans, I dread for her career if she won't play the fame game for a little while. Sure I take the piss out of her being in the same room as Lohan, but Jess needs to get business savvy before her star wanes, and these opportunities wane all too quickly.

Bigger than Lohan? Not by a long shot. More interesting compared to a jaded club hopper with a liking for AA chips worn as jewellry? Definitely.

(Two concurrent posts with porn in them, go me!)

[stantheman]

tempestarii said:

... Jess needs to get business savvy before her star wanes, and these opportunities wane all too quickly. ...

I hope she reads this and pays attention. She can only ride the Bree wave so far.

Bree is a bona fide icon who'll have her own chapter in history books about the internet, but Jessica Rose is the nobody who came out of nowhere to play her and whose star could not be more tenuous at this point. Once the Bree gig folds Jess'll be in a sink-or-swim, shark-infested, everyone-lies-to-you world that takes no prisoners. I doubt the exposure on YouTube, along with her earlier student films will serve as adequate preparation for the many landmines on the road ahead.

[hyemew]

Yeah stan, she has to be careful...
and it's strange they said her role in the LiLo movie is co-starring as I had originally heard it described (I think in Jessica's own words) as a "small" role.

[milowent]

hyemew said:

...and it's strange they said her role in the LiLo movie is co-starring as I had originally heard it described (I think in Jessica's own words) as a "small" role.

But perception can become reality quickly. the more times that jessica rose gets compared favorably to people like lohan, like in the articles i cited, it will shift common opinion.

This is a subject for another post i'll maybe get to next week, but i've also noticed that the number of people who mention lg15 on their blogs has been increasing lately. Now, i don't mean the kind of people who blogged about lg15 when the hunt was on for bree. I mean people who now mention something about lg15 in their otherwise personal blog, like just happening to mention some new video or plot point, etc., about lg15 like they would about Lost or American Idol. That is further evidence of lg15's increasing foothold in popular culture.

[brianmpei]

Wow, Milo, you got Temp to comment! Well done.
Jessica is not only a bigger star but cheaper to insure, can do her own make-up and doesn't have to report to rehab every night.

[Smashing]

Jess isn't as famous as Lohan, but her image is far more positive. I've said before, it's to LG15's benefit that more people don't follow the show. The buzz is better than the product. The conventional wisdom on LG is that it's an internet hit driven solely by the likeability of Jess. I think of everyone involved, her career will benefit the most from this.

[milowent]

What google and myspace have to say about who is more popular:



And as to google, remember that lonelygirl15 only started in June 2006. Linsday Lohan was in the Parent Trap, her first hit, 1998.

[Tempestarii]

brianmpei said:

Wow, Milo, you got Temp to comment! Well done.
Jessica is not only a bigger star but cheaper to insure, can do her own make-up and doesn't have to report to rehab every night.

But she has not flashed her crotch yet, - 50 Celebrity Snatch Power.

[lesbrent]

Lindesy Lohan only has about 30 fake myspace accounts ...

[Smashing]

The only official myspace I could find for Lindsay is her music one which has 11048 friends. And if you google "jessica rose" rather than lonelygirl15 that only gets 172,000 pages.

if you google "smashing" you get 20,000,000
"milowent" returns 645

[milowent]

smashing said:

The only official myspace I could find for Lindsay is her music one which has 11048 friends. And if you google "jessica rose" rather than lonelygirl15 that only gets 172,000 pages.

you guys are just a bunch of disbelievers.

new article (well, tomorrow's date actually, its a New Zealand article):

Fame game takes some getting used to for Rose

Excerpts:

"Jessica Rose may have been named Forbes magazine's top "Web Celeb", but the New Zealand-raised teenager is just getting to grips with being recognised on the streets of Los Angeles."

"In addition to the Forbes magazine accolade, Rose was named "Big Web Hit of 2006" by cable channel VH1 at its annual awards in December. Rose has also won the starring role in an independent teen drama, Perfect Sport, which she is due to finish filming in a few days."

"She is in talks about further film and TV work, but is not about to give up the wildly successful Lonelygirl yet, viewing the character as part of a wider phenomenon."

"Fame has also given her more money, but she said she was not yet "super-rich", still living in a rented guesthouse at the back of an acting teacher's house."