Hollywood Crush meets Social Media Crush

I don’t think this belongs on the Natiiv blog, even though it’s going to be about Branding! Social Media! Celebrity! Twitter! I think it is just fine here…

Let me state (again) for the record. I have a crush on John Cusack. I have for years. When I first got my VCR and started buying tapes, there was a time that I only had Cusack movies. I stuck the some early classics – Better Off Dead and Say Anything. I saw his movies when they came out, but not all of them.

Hell, Chuck Klosterman would say, “They don’t love John Cusack. They love Lloyd Dobler. When they see Mr. Cusack, they are still seeing the optimistic, charmingly loquacious teenager he played in Say Anything, a movie that came out more than a decade ago.”

Last night on a lark I went to see Hot Tub Time Machine. I didn’t even know Cusack (can I call him John?) was in it, but I’d seen some tweets and curiosity got the better of me. I decided at 7:15 and by 8:00 I was in my chair with some popcorn and a soda. Ready to see a movie that had very few stars given anywhere and that my friends said, “Just don’t over think it, Leah. There’s a hot tub and it’s a time machine.”

Go see the movie. It is fucking hysterical. (Can I say fucking?)

I left and I twittered a few things… including…

leahjones I loved that young John Cusack didn’t look like John really looked in ’86. And when they hit slopes first time you hear “two dollars!” 12 Apr 2010 from UberTwitter

anniemal srsly @leahjones? My first thought was the young @johncusack looked so much like him, that maybe the lifted the image from 16 Candles! 12 Apr 2010 from web

leahjones But it begs the question… Will I ever actually meet John Cusack? 12 Apr 2010 from UberTwitter

leahjones Gasp. @johncusack has an account and it’s real. I’m gonna go over here and be shy and quiet. 12 Apr 2010 from UberTwitter in reply to johncusack

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

I learn that my Hollywood crush has a Twitter account. Not only does he have one, it is clearly him.

This post isn’t about wanting to meet him (yes ,it is) but about this collision of realizing that my Hollywood crush is a real person and seeing it morph into a social media crush. One based on Tweets, blog posts, Facebooks… still not the same as knowing someone in real life, but it a fascinating shift. One from hollywood characters to social media personas.

Social media in the hands of celebrities (and out of the hands of their publicists) reminds us that they are people, too. I hope he feels like it gives him back some humanity. Let’s people know him a bit better. See his sense of humor in action, not the sense of humor of his writers (although sometimes he’s the writer).

(It’s still just a Hollywood crush, but he’s fun on Twitter.)