The insider

Beth Ann Clyde's interest in celebrity gossip blogs started on June 3, 2007 - the day Paris Hilton reported to Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif.

Last summer, Clyde tuned into the Paris Hilton saga on popular gossip blogs PerezHilton.com and TMZ.com while she was interning at a production company in New York City.

"The day Paris was supposed to go back to jail I sat there for a couple hours waiting to read the verdict online," the junior broadcast journalism major said. "My bosses were even asking for me consistent updates as well."

Clyde's curiosity for celebrities didn't stop there.

Each morning between 9 and 10, Clyde, who is one in upward of six million people who read PerezHilton.com daily, checks her e-mail before navigating her favorite celebrity gossip Web sites for updated story posts. On average, Clyde monitors them two or three times a day for 5 to 10 minutes.

The growth of the Internet has spawned an online community dedicated to analyzing every detail of the private lives of celebrities. For college students who grew up during the rise of the Internet, celebrity gossip sites are one of the most popular places to surf the web.

"I check the blogs more than I check my Facebook page, which is hard to believe," Clyde said. "Getting caught up in Britney posts are hard to stop reading because she's such a train wreck nowadays."

Americans are consumed with celebrity culture, Robert J. Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, said. However, the Internet has increased the number of venues for celebrity gossip to infinity compared to past decades, making it more difficult for people from all demographics to avoid.

"The idea of a culture delineating certain people that we are all going to pay attention to is an old idea," Thompson said. "The big difference now is that there are so many more outlets to discuss celebrity culture."

Thompson pointed to magazines specializing in entertainment like US Weekly and People along with likes of "Access Hollywood," "Entertainment Tonight" and 24-hour celebrity cable channels that did not exist throughout much of the 20th century. Fans only had a limited number of celebrity resources - until now.

"If you weren't a fan or someone interested in celebrity lifestyles then it was easy to miss," Thompson said. "Now it's impossible because you see it everywhere - at the check out counter, the gas station and on the evening news."

Today, people also have the opportunity to contribute to the celebrity gossip or become citizen paparazzi with the click of their digital camera or cell phone. It's a chance for celeb worshippers to actually involve themselves in the news of their favorite celebrities.

"Most bloggers out there are blogging to themselves, their moms and their best friends while others are doing some original stuff," Thompson said. "But, roughly 99.999 percent of the people blogging about celebrities or 'reporting' are making snarky comments on information they found elsewhere."

Clyde admits she visits Perez Hilton's blog because he uses humor to poke fun at celebrities, while also featuring updates on some of Clyde's favorite celebrities like Nicole Richie.

Newhouse professor Joan Deppa said celebrity gossip also entertains people who lack a community or are searching for a way out of their own problems.

"Britney Spears and her melodrama resonates with people, especially if they are having difficulties in their lives," Deppa said. "It's easy when you have a busy and complicated life to tune out of some of those issues and focus on someone else's."

Celebrity gossip blogs who mock celebrities also have the effect of making people feel better about him or herself by deglamorizing celebrities, Thompson added.

Clyde, however, disagrees with Thompson's opinion even though she enjoys the sarcastic comments scribbled across the celebrity photos at PerezHitlon.com.

"I don't want to see Britney Spears fail," she said. "I would like to see a comeback, but she brings all her melodrama on herself."

Brandon Miller, a magazine, newspaper and online media graduate student, checks PerezHilton.com, TMZ.com and PinkIsTheNewBlog.com on average three to five times a day for five to 10 minutes. He primarily looks for industry news, updates on his favorite celebrities, fashion trends and event pictures while navigating celebrity blog sites.

Despite the time Miller spends on these sites, he also said bloggers sometimes push their wisecracks too far.

"Bloggers shouldn't out celebrities who just had something personal happen to them, attack their sexualities or their children," Miller said. "I don't like reading blogs about celebrities who just had a meltdown or are about to die like Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse because it's just depressing."

On the day of Heath Ledger's death, Clyde was disgusted to find a celebrity blog featuring pictures and posts of his covered body being removed on a gurney because it affected her emotionally.

"Someone's death is not something that needs to be exploited or negatively commented on," Clyde said. "It shouldn't just be about the money shot."

Robin Riley, a professor in the women's studies department who teaches a class titled Gender and Popular Culture, said celebrity blogs are also good procrastination tools from daily responsibilities and reality.

"We choose to look at celebrities and their lives rather the war in Middle East because one makes us feel good, and the other doesn't," Riley said. "Media producers would rather have us look at Britney's antics rather than the war or rising oil prices."

Celebrity gossip blogs also can influence a person's body image, Riley said. TheSkinnyWebsite.com - a celebrity gossip blog dedicated to tracking celebrity weight and diets - attracts on average of 91,800 viewers a day.