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Why do stars shut down fansites?

Tue., Dec. 19, 2006 5:31 PM PST by Leslie Gornstein

Why would celebrities have their fansites shut down, when those sites offer support for their career and only post pictures the celeb posed for? You would think stars like Michelle Williams would want to keep their fans instead of alienate them.
—Olivia, Barrone, New York

The B!tch Replies: In their defense, most Hollywood royals care not a whit about what the peasantry does with its idle moments. Sure, Prince once flattened a site dedicated to discussing his bootleg material, and Scientology has tried—successfully, it seems—to shutter an anti-Tom Cruise page called ScienTOMology.com.

But in most cases, famous people and their minions tend to ignore such matters. If the serfs wish to honor their betters with cute little chitchat salons about that psycho FBI guy from Lost or some quaint pixilated temple feting the naked fat dude from Borat, let them do so with all good haste.

The only exception: if the peons use their digital shrines to—egads!—earn money. Profiting from a star's image is a major legal sin, an improper use of intellectual property—namely, a star's face.

Indeed, violation of the holy Right of Publicity—that's what lawyers call it—just might have spurred the shutdown of a recent Michelle Williams fansite. In saying goodbye, the mediablvd.com fan forum cited "legal reasons" and asked users to "refrain from mentioning Ms. Williams' name, and do not link to any images that include Ms. Williams…"

(Another fansite, thewilliamscenter.com, also recently packed up, but there's no indication that Williams had anything to do with it.)

This B!tch could not reach Media Boulevard for comment, but MB runs advertisements, meaning it could be a for-profit venture. Naughty, naughty. No exploiting those wounded- puppy eyes without cutting Michelle in on the action. Attorney Jeff Glassman, of MDFS Law near Los Angeles, speculates that Williams' people just wanted to protect her rights to profit off of her sad face as she sees fit.

Given that the site runs ads, Glassman speculates "that could be enough to claim they are profiting from Michelle Williams' image without a license or permission from her."

Poor, poor Michelle. First, she's born with a used-up stare evoking a runaway teen who lived in a bus depot, before being rescued by a troupe of Eastern European circus acrobats.

Then she costars in Dawson's Creek, forging an association with Katie Holmes that she can now, in the eyes of the public, never, ever shake. And then some adoring Website tries to exploit her by posting photos of her and running an amazon.com ad.

It's really just a crime.