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The Buzz Week in Review

August 8th, 2008 by

Paris Hilton

A celebutante unleashes her own campaign “ad.” A popular and controversial mayor spends the night in jail. And an A-list actor suffers a terrible car crash. Read on for the more of the week’s most popular stories in Buzz…

Paris Hilton’s energy plan
Last week, John McCain released a campaign ad disparaging Barack Obama and linking him visually to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. This week, La Paris issued a reply: her own version of a campaign spot. The online video came complete with a view of the hotel heiress in a low-cut swimsuit, calmly lambasting the “white haired dude” and detailing her own energy policy for America, thank you very much.

The response online was awe-inspiring. Demand for the sarcastic video and its blonde star soared in Search, while a slew of articles applauding and “guffawing” over the feature leapfrogged up the Buzz. Pop culture site Trendhunter came out on top with a post listing the 10 reasons why Paris Hilton is “smarter than you.”

Kwame Kilpatrick’s eventful week
The mayor of Detroit is no stranger to the limelight. In the past year, Kwame Kilpatrick made headlines with a salacious perjury trial. This week, he found himself back in Buzz when a judge ordered him to spend the night in jail for violating his bond agreement. Soon thereafter, he was slapped with two new charges—of felony assault.

This seems like a story of regional interest only, but time and again Mayor Kilpatrick has triggered a flood of Web-wide attention. On Thursday, searchers from across the country boosted his name 5,878%, propelling it into the top movers of the day. In Buzz, a Yahoo! News article on his woeful week beat out every other story in U.S. news.

Morgan Freeman’s car wreck
Last Sunday, Morgan Freeman was driving in a car with a then-unnamed woman when the vehicle flipped over several times. The “Dark Knight” star was airlifted to a medical center and treated for serious injuries. (He has since left the hospital and is reported to be doing fine.)

News of the accident hit the Web hard, driving searches upwards for the actor’s name (+6,603%) and his movies (+2,750%). Other questions—”how old is morgan freeman,” “morgan freeman condition,” and “morgan freeman accident“—spiked. Talk of the mysterious companion in the car inspired a raft of queries for “morgan freeman’s wife,” and perhaps prompted the announcement that the couple is divorcing.

And looking forward…

The spectacle of the Olympics’ opening ceremony, the eruption of an unsettling regional conflict, and a surprise admission from a leading political figure brought the past seven days to a close, but all three events arrived too late to top our list of the week’s most popular stories. Stay tuned to see how they play out on the Web in the next seven days.

 

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