Beck/Smith Hollywood

 Happy Thanksgiving to all, and a special thank-you to the readers who joined in with their votes and comments for our 34th Annual Tacky Taste Awards.  In a year when some of the biggest scandals in the news — from Penn State to politics — took place outside the Hollywood realm, there’s still a banquet of show business celebrity turkeys to chew on.  And heeeeere they are.

1.  Kim Kardashian & Family.  Riled up over Kim’s 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries, readers voted to bestow 1st Place, Tackiest Celebrities of the Year dishonors on the Kardashian clan.  Among the comments:

“KarTRA$Hian is KarKA$Hingin — the fake marriage down to the crappy clothes at Sears.” — Hannah L., New York, NY  

“She went from saying Kris was so nice and down to earth to saying he was only in it to climb the fame ladder practically overnight.  Of course people are suspicious. She made more than $17 million from the wedding.” — Pam R.,Canton, OH. 

“Kim Kardashian was made for your Tacky Taste Award.” — Nathan P., San Francisco, CA

Steve M. from Dallas, TX had a different take: “I think all the dimwits who watch the Kardashian family and then complain about them deserve a Tacky award.  Idiots, change the channel!”

2.  Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen  So many voters mentioned the “Two and a Half Men” creator and his former star together, it seemed appropriate to reunite them just this one last time in the annals of Tacky Taste.  For example: 

From Julia in AZ:  “Charlie Sheen’s year of tirades, drugs and hookers and Chuck Lorre’s repeated endcaps and on-air rebuttles have really done it for me.  I thought by now the banter would be over and bringing in Ashton would let the show stand on its own, but Chuck doesn’t seem to want to let go.  Week after week they have to rehash all of Charlie’s downfalls.  Come on, kill the show now if you are going to make it a year of Charlie-channeling.  Even Charlie seems to have learned to shut his mouth.” 

G.M. in Santa Monica, CA wrote, “Not that I’m buying Charlie Sheen’s good behavior act, but Chuck Lorre needs to get over being bitter and stop sniping at Charlie and try to improve the show, which sucks now.”  

In the opinion of witty Bernice R. of Naples, FL, “It has been a close race this year for the Tacky Taste Award.  Charlie Sheen was the star of the pack early on, but his admitting to his foolish rages took the edge off criticizing him.  Darn.  But then when all seemed lost, Kim Kardashian came along with her whirlwind romance, brain-free husband, check cashing acrobatics and surprise (not) divorce, and challenged Charlie for the lead.  I’ve got it!  How about a Tacky Couple Award? Theirs would be a match made in Hollywood heaven.  Oh, those two have got to meet, or what’s a Hollywood for?” 

3.  Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Grace H. of Burbank sums it up:  “Former governator Arnold Schwarzenneger makes Bill Clinton look like a cub scout.  First he let Maria find out the hard way that he sired a child by his housekeeper.  Then after they split up he went out in public sporting a T shirt that said, “I survived Maria 1977 – 2010.” 

And this comment from reader Linda D.:  “Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves the award for being unfaithful to his wife, family, and the state of California.  And then having the bad taste to wear an ‘I survived Maria’ t-shirt.” 

Agrees Paula G.: “It has to be the Arnold:  what he has done to Maria Shriver is so awful.  I used to like him, but now, I am not interested in seeing anything he does.  Thank goodness he’s no longer the Governor of California.” 

4.  Gerard Depardieu.  “Gerard Depardieu deserves your award, hands down, for urinating in the aisle of a plane after being told he had to wait until after takeoff to use the bathroom, causing a two-hour flight delay.  If one of us mere mortals did that, we’d be arrested.” — Ken, Tacoma, WA. 

Peggy S. of Los Angeles voted for Depardieu, adding, “I want to mention Anderson Cooper also.  It was one thing to get the giggles during his report about l’affaire Depardeiu — but then to have Depardieu on his talk show to discuss the incident, and hand out peepee bottles to everyone in the audience?  That was Tacky.  But I still love Anderson.”  

5.  Lindsay Lohan.  The troubled actress, who has been doing community service at the L.A. morgue as a result of violating her probation, drew tacky votes for “blowing chance after chance to straighten out,” as J.Y. of Bell, CA put it. 

“Lindsay Lohan gets my vote.  You know you’ve hit bottom when Heidi Fleiss gets on TV and congratulates you for posing for Playboy and says you’d make a great hooker.” — Tara K., Ohio

6.  Kate Gosselin.  “As always, the tackiest person in America is Kate Gosselin,” contends Dee W.  She explains: “From her trashy clothing to her constant bashing of the father of her children, she epitomizes the word tacky.  Her classifiying her ex as ‘mediocre’ because he prefers to work a regular job and live out of the spotlight was classic Kate.” 

“I would rather listen to nails on a chalkboard than that whiney b#@! any day.” — George F., Woodland Hills, CA

7.  Jesse James.  The reality show star got a late flurry of votes after his ex, Kat Von D, went public with her claim that he’d cheated on her with at least 19 women during their engagement.  “Wasn’t he supposed to have been treated for sex addiction after his cheating wrecked his marriage to Sandra Bullock?  Jesse, you tacky dog, you should demand your money back.” — L.Z.

8.  Courteney Cox and David Arquette.  “Their over-sharing about their sex life problems on Howard Stern’s show has tainted my feelings about them.   Really, Courteney, thought you had more class than to dispense such intimate details with gutter language.  Sad for Coco.” — Linda W., Peoria, IL

9.  Hank Williams, Jr., ESPN and “Fox and Friends.”  The singer’s remark, on “Fox and Friends,” making an analogy using President Obama and Hitler, got his iconic theme song cut from Monday Night Football after 20 years — and both sides chimed in: 

`”Hank totally got the shaft.  If you read the transcript, he never said Obama was like Hitler.  His conservative politics is what really got him ousted from MNF.  And he’s right that ‘Fox and Friends’ set him up.” — Dan H. 

On the other hand, S.B. of Long Island, NY, wrote, “Who gives a damn what Hank Williams Jr. thinks?  He’s a right-wing crackpot with no talent.  Glad to see him go.” 

10.  Brad Pitt.  “Some people continue to add insult to dumping their spouses overboard.  Brad Pitt told Dotson Rader of Parade Magazine that his life was boring when he was married to Jennifer Aniston.  Quote, “I wasn’t living an interesting life, myself.  I think that my marriage [to Jennifer Aniston] had something to do with it.”  – Grace H., Burbank, CA

Ryan Dunn MTV photo

It’s sad, but it could be that the late “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn’s greatest legacy might be as an anti-role model. The daredevil, whose Porsche is said to have been traveling between 132 and 140 miles per hour when it crashed, killing Dunn and passenger Zachary Hartwell last week, had a stunning blood alcohol content of .196, according to a preliminary toxicology report. With an estimated 11 drinks in him before he got behind the wheel, he automatically becomes the poster celebrity for what can happen to you when you drink and drive.

Indeed, Roger Ebert’s notorious tweet — “Friends don’t let Jackasses drink and drive” — over a photo of the horrific remains of that car could serve as an effective public service billboard.

Recent years have, unfortunately, brought us an phalanx of
anti-role model celebrities — who teach us by example what NOT to do.

Two years after Michael Jackson’s death of acute propofol intoxication, his doctor, Conrad Murray, is due to go to trial in September on involuntary manslaughter charges. But certainly, details of Jackson’s gargantuan prescription drug usage that set the stage for the overdose have given people pause.

The same is true of Heath Ledger, who seemed destined to become one of the greatest film actors of our time, until his life was cut short by what the New York City coroner’s office determined was an accidental overdose of  painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs: oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine.

Look out, because, as the late Jeff Conaway pointed out, getting addicted to pain pills can creep up on you.

Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen are just two among the current crop of celebrities who have all but destroyed their careers with wild and sometimes violent behavior — behavior that’s landed each of them behind bars more than once. Lohan and Sheen have each demonstrated how even the most prodigious talents can be thrown away. Let us hope not their lives.

Their poster would have to say something along the lines of “Here’s what excessive partying can do to you, kids.”

Anti-role model celebrities show us so many things — how NOT to divorce (e.g. Madonna and Guy Ritchie), how NOT to parent (Britney Spears), and how NOT to utilize cosmetic surgery (Joan Rivers). The idea of actually looking up to stars sometimes seems positively quaint.

Lindsay Lohan mug shot

You can be sure there’ve been plenty of personnel at the L.A. County Jail hoping that Lindsay Lohan’s new attorney – former O.J. Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro – would somehow  sidestep her 90-day sentence, ordered to begin tomorrow (7/20), by getting her into rehab last week.  Holding high-profile celebrity prisoners can be a nightmare for penal institution staff.  They generate extraordinary media scrutiny, receive love mail and hate mail, groupie wannabes, unsolicited medications.  They are the targets of other prisoners who believe they can make names for themselves by taking a celebrity down.

You may recall that Simpson’s stay at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail — after his arrest in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman – reportedly cost more than $230,000 for the first four months alone.  Special arrangements for the ex-NFL star included sleeping pills and a cervical pillow – after his attorneys made a fuss about his bed aggravating an old football injury.  He was also reportedly allowed 10 more hours a week to walk outside his cell than other inmates. (Reports have Simpson “bored out of his mind” in his current incarceration at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada.)

When Robert Downey, Jr. was locked up at the L.A. County Jail in 1997 on a probation violation, his friends speculated that he’d probably do just about 70 of his 180-day jail sentence because they figured he’d be in a private cell and it would be too expensive to keep him locked up for long.  Wrong!

Authorities surprised Downey and his handlers and put the actor in “the Pod,” or general population, of the facility.  Shortly thereafter, headlines about Downey getting cut in an altercation with another inmate appeared everywhere.

Now it’s Lindsay Lohan facing a stay at the county jail.  Time will tell what style of treatment she’ll receive.

Lindsay Lohan

Think Lindsay Lohan will get out of most of her 90 day jail sentence?  Think again.

“It’s County Jail.  If she were a regular Jane Doe, she might get processed out in 23, 30 days.  But the county knows it’s going to be looked at.  They don’t want people to say she got out too fast,” believes leading Hollywood-based celebrity attorney Debra Opri.  She considers it more likely that the trouble-plagued starlet will serve 60-70 per cent of her sentence for violating the terms of her probation on counts of driving under the influence and reckless driving.

“It’s going to be hell on earth,” adds the lawyer known for numerous high profile clients including the Jackson Family and James Brown.  “I don’t think there’s going to be any special treatment, but they will take steps to protect her.  Many people in there would like to say, ‘I beat up Lindsay Lohan’” – or worse.

Opri is definitely part of the camp that believes Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel’s harsh sentence will ultimately prove beneficial for the 24-year-old, who flouted the law by missing seven court-ordered alcohol counseling sessions (not to mention the obscenity she had painted on her middle fingernail at her hearing this week). “In my opinion she will survive this and will be like Robert Downey, Jr.  She is too good of an actress, too good,” says

Debra Opri

Opri, who’d love to see Downey meet with Lohan.  “I believe she is going to overcome the addictions and thank the judge eventually.  If it weren’t for this, the system’s tough love, she would die of addiction.  She was headed for death in a matter of years.”

When Lohan went through rehab in 2007, her one-time movie mom, Jamie Lee Curtis, told us that “I have great confidence in her talent, and I have great confidence in her intelligence and in her ability to make good choices.”

Jamie Lee herself went through her own lost period with cocaine and booze – though certainly never as publicly or with the severity of Lohan.  She has talked about bonding with her father, ‘50s matinee idol Tony Curtis, by doing cocaine together over a period of time.  When she realized the habit had become destructive and decided to quit, their closeness evaporated for years – but she became wildly successful in both her personal and professional lives.  Here’s hoping Lohan looks to her example.

Jon Gosselin

With Father’s Day approaching, Jon Gosselin’s involuntarily back on the sleaze news circuit with the widespread play of a leaked (by whom?) video in which he and ex-girlfriend Hailey Glassman are giggling all over their Pringles on a San Tropez hotel balcony — stoned.

Such a really awful father.

He’s now Mr. Pot Head after having been Mr. Extra-Marital Carouser and Mr. Litigation. Last year, you may recall, once he learned that TLC planned to do “Kate Plus 8” — minus Jon — he demanded through he attorneys that the show cease production immediately or face criminal charges, and barred cameras from his/their property. The cable channel answered with its own breach of contract suit, then Jon answered that. Rumors of a sex tape and cocaine abuse surfaced.   Jon brought up child labor practices in his ongoing fight with TLC.   And even as the subpoenas flew, Jon’s other ex-girlfriend, Kate Major – another Kate — got into the act, reportedly planning her own suit, claiming violation of a contract they’d written up on a napkin, calling for the former Star reporter to become Jon’s personal assistant.

Jon settled with TLC in February, freeing him to do whatever he does. Roll joints with his 23-year-old lady, or whatever.

Gosselin is not alone. This past year has been quite a vintage for really awful fathers.

Still fresh in our minds is the spectacle of Joe Jackson attempting to squeeze more money out of his late son Michael – who pointedly left him out of his will.

Although a Superior Court judge ruled that Jackson, Sr., had no standing to challenge that legal document, he pursued getting an allowance out of the estate, saying he has living expenses of $20,000 a month and no income of his own, so of course he needs the dough.   He laid plans to appeal the appointment of the estate’s executors — even as he was eyeing Michael’s children for their performing potential, noting that he’s heard seven-year-old Blanket “can really dance.”  Another generation to exploit!

This is the man Michael once said made him feel sick to his stomach, just being in the same room with him.

This is the man who answered “I’m great,” when asked how he was feeling at the BET Awards, three days after Michael’s death – and proceeded to use the occasion to tell press on the red carpet about his new record company.

This is the man shadowed by accusations of abusing Michael as a child – who said once in a BBC interview, “I never beat him. I whipped him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick.”

The train wreck that is Michael Lohan and daughter Lindsay’s relationship goes from worse to worse — even without those disturbing reports that he asked to see Lindsay look-alikes doing their thing in a strip joint.

He has made a name and career for himself out of commenting on Lindsay’s latest reckless activity, getting mileage out of everything from Lindsay’s partying to her (he says) prescription pill abuse.   He released tapes that disclosed her relationship with the late Heath Ledger and confirmed suspicions of her self-harm – tapes including Lindsay crying and sobbing that no one cares about her — so that (to hear him tell it) the young star would get help. That he made the tapes without his family’s knowledge and sold them says it all.   Mother Dina (not averse to exploiting Lindsay herself) jumping in to point out that the tapes weren’t current makes it worse.

Mom ‘n’ Dad meeting about Lindsay, plans for a family intervention, Michael’s feelings about her recent missed court date, her alcohol-indicating ankle bracelet — it’s all fuel for his 24-hour news cycle.   He’s cozied up to the scandal press he keeps feeding nuggets about his wayward child — a thoroughly disgusting partnership.

This is the man who served a four-year sentence in the 1980s for stock fraud and has been back behind bars on parole violation. This is the man who fought with former wife Dina throughout Lindsay’s childhood, who has been accused by her of threats, domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse.

And now he reportedly plans to open a club in the Hamptons called…wait for it…CONTROVERSY! Ah ha ha ha.

Then we have the ridiculous Levi Johnston, showing up here, there – ‘most anywhere – to say a few disparaging words about Sarah Palin, the grandmother of his one-year-old son, Tripp.   Clearly, the 20-year-old amateur hockey player has a taste for the spotlight, including wanting to do a reality show – of his own, especially! — and showing off his nekkid body in Playgirl magazine.  Pays a lot better than training to become an electrician, which is what Levi was doing before fate and an unplanned pregnancy took a hand.

That baby mama Bristol Palin says he is “a stranger to me” now and hasn’t been around to see his baby, is no surprise.   Not to be negative – he’s young, maybe he’ll change — but the forecast for this daddy to turn into a father of merit is pretty bleak.   On Oprah’s show last fall, Palin noted that he’s taken to calling himself Rikki Hollywood, and that it’s “a bit heartbreaking to see the road he’s on right now.”

This is the man so overworking his 15 minutes of fame that he’s given Democrats and Republicans something they can agree on at long last: Levi Johnston is an embarrassment.

So this Father’s Day, if you’re fortunate enough to have a good Dad, take a moment to think the good thought for Tripp, Lindsay, the Gosselin kids and others who aren’t as lucky, and give your ol’ man a hug.

By Stacy Jenel Smith and Emily-Fortune Feimster

Corey Haim at age 14

The headlines about Corey Haim continue after his death:  The city of Toronto pays for his funeral because his financially strapped mother cannot afford it.  Haim’s mother says she was informed he died of pulmonary congestion and had an enlarged heart, yet toxicology results have yet to be announced by the coroner’s office – and surely his long, torturous history with drug abuse has something to do with it.  Haim’s mother says he was there helping her as she undergoes chemotherapy treatment for her cancer.  “He was a good boy,” she says.

This is hardly the ending fans would have expected back when Haim and his best pal Corey Feldman hit a stratospheric level of fame as vampire-fighting teens in “The Lost Boys.”  But the years after his 80s fan frenzy heyday saw Haim addicted to crack, enduring bankruptcy, a drug-induced stroke, 15 stints in rehab and industry peers dropping him due to his drug use.  Even Feldman finally had to turn away after Haim’s mini-comeback with their “The Two Coreys” reality show crumbled under the weight of his addiction to prescription pills.

The passing of Haim has given other former juvenile performers pause.  His course, they know, could have been theirs.

One-time “Brady Bunch” sweetheart Maureen McCormick is among those who went to hell and back after becoming a star.  The actress beat addiction to Quaaludes and cocaine – addiction severe enough to have traded sex for drugs, she wrote in her autobiography – to find happiness as a wife, mother and author.

Drew Barrymore’s victory over the addictions she acquired as a child star whose life spun out of control is well known.

Jaimee Foxworth, Mackenzie Phillips, Todd Bridges and Jodie Sweetin are also among the many who have lived traumatic lives and fought drug problems.

Yet certainly, things don’t always go that way.

Fred Savage, who has a very busy behind-the-cameras career as a director in addition to his acting work, has said that he’s sick of being asked how he turned out so normal.

“That really upsets me,” added the Stanford grad, who also pointed out that of his former “Wonder Years” cast mates, Josh Saviano went on to Yale, Jason Hervey had his own production company and was a family man with three kids, and Danica McKellar is successful not only as an actress, but as a theoretical mathematician.  In fact, the actress remembered as Winnie Cooper was a math star at UCLA — and has authored three books geared toward enticing young people, especially girls, into viewing math her way (“Math Doesn’t Suck,” “Kiss My Math” and the upcoming “Hot X: Algebra Exposed”).  Proving that “smart is sexy” as she says, she’s done a photo layout in which she’s garbed in skimpy black lingerie and stiletto heels.  Not the usual idea of a brainiac.

Why are the child stars from one show so well-adjusted and successful – like “The Wonder Years” – while others crash, like “Different Strokes”?

The latter show’s Dana Plato had a wasted adult life that included soft core porn, arrests for armed robbery and forgery, and a drug overdose death at 34.  It had Todd Bridges, who was swamped in drug abuse and trouble with the law until managing to clean up and get his act together again.  (He went on to a recurring role on “Everyone Hates Chris” and serving as an anti-drug advocate.)  And it had Gary Coleman, whose troubles have included bankruptcy, suing his parents and former manager for misappropriation of his trust fund, and being cited for disorderly conduct while engaging in a heated argument with a woman.

“It all starts with family,” declares producer Todd J. Greenwald, whose show credits include “Saved by the Bell,” “Hannah Montana” and “The Wizards of Waverly Place.”

The sense of a juvenile performer having a stable and supportive family “is definitely a factor” for him in casting, says Greenwald, although it’s “not the final say.”

Grown-up child stars who’ve become successful as adults frequently point to having had the right mom and dad as the primary reason for their staying grounded.

For instance, recalled Ron Howard, “I had parents who acted like parents, who didn’t depend on baby sitters on the set, who saw to it that I never lost touch with my peers…There was always time for the kid things.”

And Ben Savage, the “Boy Meets World” star and younger brother of Fred, explained, “Our parents never wanted us to become lost in the limelight of Hollywood.  That’s why I think they emphasized the importance of school.”

On the other side of that coin, of course, there are such notoriously terrible parents as opportunistic ex-con Michael Lohan, the father of Lindsay, who’ll squeeze whatever personal benefit he can out of her fame at whatever the cost to his daughter, a gifted actress who has all but ruined her career with her self-destructive behavior.  The best thing that can be said of Lindsay’s mother, Dina, is that she’s better than the father.

Or the awful mother and father of faded pop star Aaron Carter, or nightmare stage father Kit Culkin – Macaulay’s dad – or arguably abusive Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson, or Jaid Barrymore, Drew’s where-was-she? mother…the list goes on and on.

But there’s more than just the juvenile actors’ home lives to blame – or applaud – for their adult outcomes.  Certainly they are influenced by what goes on in their work environments as well.

Corey Haim reportedly started drinking beer while on the set of “Lucas” at age 14 and tried marijuana while making “The Lost Boys” – he and Feldman got close during production, in fact, because they were excluded from the “adult” parties that were going on every night on the picture and found their own fun.  In his youth, Haim’s cast mates included the notoriously drug-bedeviled Robert Downey, Jr., Gary Busey, and Charlie Sheen.  Some role models.

Then there are the handlers who’ll say yes to anything a star client wants, if the client is successful enough – even when the client is minor.  And there are hangers-on that find their way into the lives of celebrities, partake of the spoils of their successes, party with them, and sometimes help them spend their money on drugs.  Sometimes the hangers-on are even worse than fair weather friends.

“A lot of people in these performers’ lives, they can’t do it so they want to kill it kind of thing,” notes actress Bijou Phillips.  “Of course, ultimately, everyone has to be responsible for themselves, but there are shady people out there who want to harm.  I’ve seen a lot of that with my family — the vultures, the users trying to look cool who are destructive,” adds Phillips, daughter of the late John Phillips and half-sister of Mackenzie.

Ricky Schroder, who is among the small group of former child actors who transitioned into a successful adult career, tells us he was fortunate to get through it all fairly unscathed.

“There’s not a lot of us who started that young and are still in it.  There’s a lot of luck involved,” notes Schroder, who rose to fame in Jon Voight’s remake of the big-screen tear-jerker, “The Champ,” and in the sitcom “Silver Spoons.”

“The number one thing I did that helped me get where I’m at today is that I truly love what I do.  I love acting, writing and directing, and being on set.  To put up with what you have to put up with in this business, the hills and valleys, you have to love it or else you’ll throw the towel in.  It’s one of the reasons I’m still here,” says the actor, who found success later on in life with “NYPD Blue.”

Though he’s certainly aware of the pitfalls that child actors face, Schroder says he would never discourage his own children from acting.  “I’m supportive of them and I want them to do what they want and hopefully make a living at it.  I’ll help them if they want help,” he adds.  “I have a couple of kids who think they want to do it, but I don’t know if they really, really want to do it.  In the first month when they can’t pay rent and they’re hungry, it’s not so fun then.”

Ultimately, whether a child performer grows into a healthy adulthood or plummets into a morass of disappointment is, of course, an individual matter.

Consider the paths of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.  On paper, it would appear that Britney had the advantage as a child from a stable two-parent home, an elementary school teacher and a building contractor.  Christina’s parents spilt when she was seven, and, as she has made clear, hers was a household of domestic violence at the hands of her father.  The two stars began their career lives the same way, as fresh-scrubbed cuties on Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club.”  Each went on to pop stardom, each shattered her girl-next-door image with sexy videos and stage routines.  At one point, it appeared Christina would out-raunch Britney.

However, at 29 Christina seems fairly grounded.  She has a four-year-old marriage (to music marketing executive Jordan Bratman), a two-year-old son and a grown-up career.

Britney’s life has been a drama diva high wire act with no safety net — her 28 years blighted with drinking and drugging, awful romantic choices, a 55-hour marriage and a bad two-year one, and such self-destructive and bizarre behavior that she lost physical custody of her two young sons and for a time was forbidden visitation.  Between her lost periods, she has been, and is now, a superstar to the maximum.  Here’s hoping she finds happiness and a modicum of peace.

End it

Neil Patrick Harris

Which celebrities are the best — and worst — at using Twitter?

“Neil Patrick Harris has done a spectacular job. He’s using Twitter in such a wonderfully subtle way,” says Peter Shankman, a man who knows. Shankman has 100,000-plus internet followers via HARO, the mega network he created, HelpAReporter.com, and he is most certainly at the forefront of the social networking phenomenon.

(Come to think of it, the other day on Twitter, NPH got us all excited again about “Accomplice: Hollywood,” the way cool alternate-reality live theatrical experience he’s currently got going on the streets of Hollywood, as a producer. Why, oh why, can’t Neil be the new “American Idol” judge when Simon leaves, not icky Howard Stern?… But, we digress….)

“You know the reason celebrities have publicists is not so they can speak, but to shut them up,” Shankman wryly states. “Twitter has shown us how easy it is for celebrities to get drunk and say something stupid and make fools of themselves. It’s also shown us those who do a really good job of posting things — very funny things, edgy things, subtly promotional things. They’re not taking pictures of themselves topless and posting them like Lindsay Lohan.” Talk about a Twitpic.

Shankman also names director/choreographer/ producer Adam Shankman — “same name, no relation” — as an able Twitterer. And, not surprisingly, Ashton Kutcher. “He and Demi Moore did something very funny a couple of weeks ago. They were deciding what to have for dinner by writing on their arms and taking pictures and posting them.”

On the other hand, as Twitter followers know all too well, there are those who are already wearing out their welcome with mindless, disjointed chatter.

“There is this concept of oversharing. Way too many people overshare,” Shankman believes. “But the beauty of it is, people will only follow you if they’re interested in what you’re sharing, so it’s going to become harder and harder to overshare.”

Also, “We’re starting to see people who are taking payments from sponsors to Tweet,” Shankman adds. But those who are too blatantly trying to use Twitter for advertising may find themselves quickly dropped by followers, including him.

How did he get all his followers? “I wish I knew, because God knows it’s not about my looks,” insists the triathlete and skydiver, obviously not wanting to give away his secrets. Of course, his HARO site offers an ingenious service, bringing together media people who need expert information, and experts who need media exposure.

Of his personal messages, be they Tweets or Status Updates, he says, “I always add value for people to enjoy.” Indeed, Shankman’s missives are filled with funny bits and pieces of wisdom. “It’s not what people can do for you, it’s what you can do for people,” he says.

And, you want your words to carry from follower to follower to follower. As he notes, “The value of Twitter lies in the reTweet.”

Sarah Palin

With Thanksgiving almost upon us again, it’s time to dish those celebrity turkeys whose behavior you found hard to swallow this year — the 2008 Tacky Taste Awards, voted on by readers. Here are the Top 10 results: