Celebrity spokespeople are a fact of life at this point, but celebrity tech founders? Like so many things, it's a phenomenon that gets frothy every time there's a bubble. And with the rise of online video, there are opportunities galore for celebrities to bring their content experience to the table and contribute something of value to the projects of their techie co-founders and venture backers. Meanwhile, social web tools give celebrities a way to meet their fans on their own terms. No tech conference would be complete these days without a token celebrity entrepreneur.

Most of the attendees at the TechCrunch conference seemed to think Kutcher's show, called "Blah Girls," was a less-than-compelling idea (of course, it's more of a teen girl thing, and to my knowledge there were none of them there). But they also agreed that it was bound to do better than many of the other competing startups at the event because of Kutcher's role (even if the tech company for which he was previously a spokesperson, Ooma, has hardly succeeded). And "Blah Girls" is just one of some five web series in development at Kutcher's Katalyst Media, he said. For more, see the video interview on NewTeeVee.

Celebrity names certainly don't guarantee success. Damon Wayans took his "In Living Color 2.0" video site and YouTube channel offline less than six months after they launched. Jack Black had Acceptable.TV, which tied web video to a show on VH1, but spent less than two months on the air before petering out online.

Funny or Die could hardly be considered a failure, but so far its story has centered around its efforts to match its first hit, co-founder Will Ferrell's "The Landlord." And the site has succeeded in making clear the power of celebrity. Its top non-Ferrell videos of all time star Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria and Jerry O'Connell, respectively.

When I met MC Hammer for a sit-down interview about his social networking startup, DanceJam, last year he nearly walked off the set after I asked whether he was a celebrity frontman. DanceJam, according to public traffic measures, hasn't made it big, but CEO Geoffrey Arone promised me this week that "a bunch of big celebrities" would soon be making appearances on the site through a worldwide dance competition promotion with Bebo.

IBeatYou CEO Abdul Khan is acutely aware of how hard to push the celebrity angle. After co-founding the startup with basketball star Baron Davis and Cash Warren (best known for being Jessica Alba's husband), they brought their high-wattage friends to the site, which hosts photo, video, and text competitions. IBeatYou middled along until a breakout hit in May -- Jessica Alba engaging in a staring contest with fans -- got 1 million views on IBeatYou, 5 million views on YouTube, and more through IBeatYou's widgets. People stuck around, says Khan, giving IBeatYou a respectable (but not that impressive) high of 400,000 unique visitors in August.

But Khan says he knows he needs to build an engaged, sustained audience that outlives these celebrity boosts. Given how may of these sites are based on user-generated content, de-emphasizing the celebrity aspect seems prudent. The stars log into IBeatYou a couple times a month, says Khan, but "99.9 percent of our content is non-celebrity content." More popular than Alba's staring contest? A member-initiated "most creative motivational poster" competition, Khan says proudly.

Promotion is becoming increasingly important on the web, where there's simply too many diversions bombarding users. So having a celebrity's MySpace friends or fan club in your camp, plus the press attention you attract, can be a big deal. Expect many more Hollywood folks to appear on the scene, especially those who had an apple dropped on their heads during the writers' strike with the realization that they could control their craft if they went straight to the web. Will they succeed? Hard to say, since it's not like celebrities can guarantee success offline, either.

Image courtesy of TechCrunch

This article also appears on Businessweek.com.

Today I have a story of true love to tell you.

It all started several months ago when Sean Ryan (our CEO) told myself and Lucy Meez about this super cool new website called DanceJam.

DanceJam is this superfly website which allows user to watch & rate the hottest dance videos; AND, enter dance battles & contests.

We already loved the site - as it's really fun to watch different people's versions of My Dougie - but, guess who one of the principle guys behind the website is?????

MC HAMMER!

That's right. The.MC.HAMMER.

Lucy & I love Hammer. Often when we're sitting in HQ one of us will look up from what we are doing and say "It's Hammer Time!" Then we bust a move in our chairs, cracking ourselves up and making the people sitting around us stare at us like we're totally batty.

Not to mention, rumor has it that Lucy still owns a pair of Hammer pants.

So imagine how thrilled we were to find out that Meez was launching a DanceJam boutique in the MeezMaker and DanceJam Hangouts in MeezNation?!?

Totally thrilled, like, totally man. Meaning we were ECSTATIC when we found out that Hammer - himself - was going to pay Meez HQ a visit... (Sadly, this happened when I was on vacation; but, Lucy said he was very gracious & cool - like you'd expect any less from HAMMER, come on!)

This has been a partnership made in heaven - we love Hammer & DanceJam - and, Hammer and DanceJam love Meez. As evidenced by a Twitter from the man himself:

Of course, Lucy follows Hammer's Twitter - so she saw this right away and replied with:

Like I said, Meezers - there's a lot o' love floating around this office today. We couldn't be happier that DanceJam is on Meez and that Hammer loves us... :)

True love is wonderful!

Until Next Time - IT'S HAMMER TIME!
~Kate

First, and foremost, Performance Bike of Cary, has yet to let me know what is going on with the electric bike I ordered 4 weeks ago.  I am on the phone with them, right now, yet I have little hope.  How can I go green if they won't cooperate?! 

Secondly, I have been 'practice' crocheting for the hats Connie and I are making for chemotherapy patients.  (Needles for noodles!)  I bought the pretty blue yarn which indicated it is for babies.  This stuff is so soft you could sleep on it!  My husband is just tickled pink by this turn of events.  He didn't know I could actually crochet. 

I guess my secret is out, really out, because he wants to send a picture to his mother.  I haven't done it since I was...well, young,  but it is just like riding the Schwinn Campus I ordered from Performance Bike of Cary, except my crocheting isn't imaginary.

Thirdly, I am taking action!  (Though cautious and responsible action; this economy could take some lessons in fabulosity.)  You should see my cover letter; it is inspired. 

Fourthly, I am getting ready for my video debut.  $23 love dollars have spoken and four of you want my smooth moves.  Get ready because I am!  I have to get a camera, pick a song, and pop-lock-n-drop-it.  And stop eating cookies.  (Seriously, I had two for breakfast.)

Fifthly, we received our uber frugal furniture for the love bungalow.  So far all we have assembled is the ottoman, but I just can't describe how fabulous  this thing looks.  I simply cannot wait  to get the sofa and chair assembled.

There are so many personal finance bloggers who talk about how having a house is a bad finance move.  Frankly, my dears, I don't give a....hoot.  I love being a homeowner!

You know, everyone can see how great (or bad!) you are when you upload your dance video to TinyPic. But there’s no rating system, you say. How will I REALLY know what people think of my stuff? Well, you’d just better join DanceJam.com -- The largest dance floor on the planet!

DanceJam uses TinyPic to host the videos you upload. And DanceJam provides you with that little “je ne sais quoi” (I don’t know what—well, I do know what. It provides you with a RATING system.) You can enter your video in a battle. People can vote!! You can emerge victorious (or as a super loser…hard to say). And just like TinyPic, you can send a link to all your friends and relatives to share your battle (you might need the votes).

So get out there and dance! Invent your own, go for a known quantity, get a broom and pretend it’s a light-saber. It’s up to you to impress us all.

As Portfolio wrote, though TMZ's Harvey Levin is pimping the site in a video introduction, a spokesperson for People's Court Raw said Levin is "not the creator or the voice and the image" of the new site. The URL is registered to Warner Bros. (which also puts out TMZ).

People's Court Raw is in beta and a lot of the arguments feel like they were created by people who work there and were testing out the system. Sample conflicts include a co-worker who eats curry too often, a belching officemate, and whether or not a boyfriend should pay for birth control. A lot of the arguments have posting dates from the fall of 2007, further indicating they were tests (unless the site's been live forever and no one noticed).

The head-to-head video space is heating up with sites like IBeatYou, DanceJam and Strutta (which was inspired by Judge Judy), all giving people the chance to humiliate prove they are better, smarter and/or more correct than someone -- anyone -- else. And while the People's Court may think the brand-name recognition will give it a leg up on the competition, the web version is missing one key ingredient: Doug Llewelyn.

(Image courtesy of Ranger Ian's courtroom page.)