But even though just about every celebrity blog is, to at least some extent, a publicity tool, some throw off surprising sparks of creativity and originality. Is it possible that, just as people who hold down dreary jobs by day blog passionately about movies, knitting or fish keeping by night, some celebrities feel that even their seemingly exciting, creative jobs don't use every muscle they've got? Jeff Bridges' blog is filled with wryly amusing John Lennon-style line drawings and scans of handwritten notes (as well as, of course, plugs for Bridges' movies and appeals made on behalf of his favorite charities). And Ian McKellen, in the Grey Book, an online journal of his experience making and promoting the "Lord of the Rings" movies (it spans 1999 to 2001), proves himself an exceedingly charming and entertaining writer. The Grey Book feels like a precursor to a celebrity memoir that any of us might actually want to read. In a digression from his "LOTR" musings, circa December 2001, McKellen grouses good-naturedly about doing Strindberg's "Dance of Death" at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway with Helen Mirren and having to cross West 44th Street at the end of the evening: Parking isn't allowed on the north side of the street, where the Broadhurst is located, but it is allowed on the south side, outside the St. James Theater, where Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were, at the time, starring in "The Producers." Thus, Lane and Broderick had it cushy, but McKellen's driver would have to wait on the St. James side, and McKellen would have to dodge post-theater traffic to get to him. "But then," McKellen writes, "on really crowded nights when the tourist theatre district is belying the image of a New York City still in recovery, there's often a friendly young cop who guides me over as if I were the President." Anyone who can write that crisply and elegantly about crossing the street ought to be writing a memoir.

While I'm only a moderately enthusiastic Moby fan, I'm delighted to report that his blog is a model of good grammar, spelling and punctuation (by blog standards, at least) and is marked by a casual, friendly tone (despite Moby's notorious stridence about some of his favorite causes). He portrays the glamorous life of a musician in a way that's stripped of artifice -- and that may be the artifice right there, but no matter: "in other news, my days are now spent in hotel rooms and tv studios and airplanes. which is ok. the biggest negative is that i can't remember the last time that my lungs were filled with non-recycled air. today, for example, i woke up in a hotel room, did interviews in a hotel room, got into a car, drove to the airport, got on an airplane, drove to another hotel, checked in, and now here i sit, in another hotel room." The grandfather may have said it better in "A Hard Day's Night" -- "I was supposed to be getting a change of scenery, and so far I've been in a train and a room, a car and a room and a room and a room" -- but the essence of the musician-on-tour experience (and, presumably, its isolation) isn't lost on Moby.

Rosie O'Donnell's blog, formerlyrosie, is somewhat harder to comprehend. O'Donnell -- who, if her blog is any indication, is still reeling emotionally from the legal battle she fought with Gruner & Jahr, the publisher of her defunct magazine, Rosie -- is, to have her tell it, strident in her views. Also, as an openly gay woman and mom, she offends many people, as we're reminded repeatedly. O'Donnell is outspoken about her political beliefs (she has plenty to say about Bush, the Iraq war and the prevalent knuckleheadedness on gay marriage). And while she probably does infuriate many people, she walks a strangely fine line between wanting to piss people off and wanting to be loved. In an entry titled "fat celebs," O'Donnell blasted Kirstie Alley for telling Matt Lauer that she was 201 pounds at her heaviest. Apparently, O'Donnell believed Alley was underestimating. She wrote: "I almost choked on my yodel/ I am 220/ fess up kirstie - 201 my ass."

Recent Stories