Facebook: The new battleground for popstars? Lily Allen takes on Katy Perry
British singer/songwriter Lily Allen has revived a feud with U.S. pop star Katy Perry (of “I Kissed a Girl” song fame), threatening to post Perry’s phone number on Facebook should Perry make any more disparaging comments about her. Isn’t that the sort of drama that MySpace is usually associated with, not Facebook? It looks like celebrity tastes in social networking sites are changing, if not exactly growing up.
Perry, who remarked that she was a “skinnier version of Lily Allen,” was criticized by Allen for having “crass” lyrics and not writing her own songs.
“I have Katy Perry’s number, someone did me a favour. I’m just waiting for her to open her mouth one more time then it hits Facebook,” Allen wrote on her Facebook profile, according to The Sun.
Allen also joined two anti-Katy Perry Facebook groups, including Katy Perry? Who the hell does she think she is? where she, under the profile name Lily Rose Allen, declared her approval on the group’s wall. Celebrities have lately taken to including their middle names to distinguish their profiles from the scads of imposters on Facebook, unless you’re Lindsay Lohan and don’t understand Facebook’s policy on using your real name.
It’d be easy for Katy Perry to change her phone number, a lot easier than dealing with a hacked phone, as Paris Hilton found out in 2005. What’s interesting is the recent migration of celebrities from MySpace to Facebook, along with what feels like the rest of the world, with 600,000 to 700,000 new users joining Facebook each day. Longtime MySpace users that I know openly admit on their Facebook statuses and in their profiles that they’re new to Facebook and don’t quite know how to use it yet, but the shift is significant.
Lily Allen, whose popularity was ignited by fans discovering the demos on her MySpace music page in 2005, has blogged over the past three years on MySpace. Allen’s raw, uncensored posts resonated with readers used to airbrushed pop stars, as she wrote in May of 2007 that she was “fat, ugly, and sh***er than [Amy] Winehouse,” drawing thousands of supportive comments as well as vicious ones. She also chronicled her experiences of being interrogated at U.S. customs for assaulting a photographer and drug use. Her fan base has swelled to over 453,000 friends, making her one of the top 10 most popular musicians on MySpace in 2008.
So why would a celebrity so ingrained with the MySpace audience take her grievances to Facebook? Maybe it’s because of the site’s emphasis on sharing real information — users will believe a phone number posted on Facebook more readily than they do on MySpace, especially since MySpace isn’t exactly known for being a source of accurate information. Allen’s Facebook Fan Page is a study in minimalism compared to her cluttered MySpace music profile, with fans posting their reaction to the fight on the wall. Or maybe it’s because Allen’s reportedly dating art mogul Jay Joplin, who at age 45 is part of Facebook’s fastest growing user demographic? Does Facebook come off as more grown-up than MySpace, despite being younger?
I went so far as to try and befriend Allen (or at least the most convincing imposter) on Facebook, asking her why she chose Facebook as the drama venue of choice and not MySpace. I’ll certainly update you if she replies. Maybe Allen can give us insight into why she’s jumped the MySpace ship for Facebook.
On that note, I leave you with Katy Perry’s performance of the hit single “Hot N Cold” at YouTube Live, which is an apt metaphor for her relationship with Allen. They fight, they make up, they fight again (but they don’t kiss).
[photo via Katy Perry]
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