Ashton Kutcher is officially a bigger twit than CNN.
The Punk'd star beat the venerable news network in reaching more than 1 million followers on Twitter. Anderson Cooper was covering the exciting duel live when @aplusk became the first-ever Twitter millionaire at 11:13 p.m. PT Thursday. @cnnbrk went platinum 29 minutes later at 11:42.
"Victory is ours!!!!!!!!" Kutcher wrote shortly after crossing the finish line. He posted a celebratory video of his champagne popping shortly thereafter, as his celebrity friends, including Diddy and Ryan Seacrest, offered their congratulations.
Kutcher and CNN faced mild competition from Britney Spears, who attempted—unsuccessfully—to get in the race. However, the battle will heat up today, when Oprah Winfrey joins the live-blogging network. @Oprah typed her very first tweet during the taping of her show.
"HI TWITTERS," she wrote. "THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY."
Thankfully, in the notes that follow, she's figured out how to undo that caps-lock button.
Kutcher and CNN had upped their stakes, with the winner pledging to donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day (April 25), and the loser donating 1,000. Of course, Oprah has to prove she can compete before even scoring 100,000 Twitter followers.
"Count me in for 20,thousand nets," she typed. (We don't doubt she'll figure out the punctuation eventually too.)
One person who won't be joining the race: Katie Couric.
"I Twitter and blog very selectively," she said at the Walter Cronkite Awards at USC on Wednesday. "I don't think anybody gives a rat's ass whether I am about to eat a tuna sandwich. I don't even care. Some of it is so inane and narcissistic and bizarre I don't quite get it. I don't know why anyone would want to read it, much less why I would want to write it."
Whatevs.
In the meantime, we know we won't be updating you on the economy, we're not quite as cute as Ashton and we're not likely to recommend the next It book, but our Twitter can offer all the latest dish on your favorite celebs! Follow us @eonline!
(Originally published April 17, 2009, at 9:10 a.m. PT)