I’ve got a social media etiquette quandary for you: What’s the policy for making use of a loved one’s Twitter account after they’ve passed away? What if that person is a hugely famous comedy pioneer? Fans of Joan Rivers got quite a shock over the holiday weekend when the comedienne starting tweeting again three months after she passed away. It turns out, though, it was just her daughter, Melissa Rivers, taking over the account.
I finally figured out my mom’s password HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Xo Melissa. pic.twitter.com/giTnL2qwnO
— Joan Rivers (@Joan_Rivers) November 27, 2014
Since then, Melissa has been posting mostly about trips to the theater with her son, Cooper, and the same tweets have been duplicating to her own account. But here’s the thing: Joan’s Twitter account has 2.22 million followers, while Melissa’s has just 231,000. She does know you can change the display name on a Twitter account, right? And the photo? It won’t even affect the follower count, if that’s what she’s worried about. And you don’t have to make it look like Joan Rivers is tweeting from beyond the grave. This just feels a little on the icky side to me. But hey, we’re in a brave new world here. Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was just trying to have a nice night out at NYC’s Tao nightclub recently, but some young punks nearly ruined all his fun. “Cuba was sitting at this table hitting on girls all night,” a source tells the NY Daily News. “These four rich kids, who were maybe 21 or 22, started hitting on these girls at the promoter’s table and [the girls] weren’t having it.” A fight soon broke out between said promoter and the young upstarts, but Gooding “just sat there doing nothing,” according to the source. “Cuba barely reacted while girls were getting shoved around.” And when security finally had the situation under control, “he got back to being all skeezy and hitting on girls.” This maybe isn’t exactly the kind of celebrity endorsement the folks behind Uber were thinking of, but hey, you take what you can get. Amanda Bynes’ parents have reportedly started using the app as a compromise to both let their troubled daughter do her own thing but still keep tabs on her. “Amanda’s mom, Lynn, set up the Uber car service on her daughter’s cell phone. Uber can take Amanda anywhere she needs to go and it’s paid for out of Amanda’s estate, since her mom has conservatorship,” a source tells Radar Online. “This allow Amanda to have independence. But at the same time, her parents can track where she goes.” Man, wait until they find out about Find My iPhone. The first face to pop up in the new “Star Wars” trailer was that of British actor John Boyega, apparently donning an Imperial Stormtrooper uniform. Granted, we know basically nothing about the plot of the new film or what his character is doing dressed like that, but some people already have a problem with it. Racist people, mostly. Well, Boyega is taking the high road, if cheekily. He posted a thank you to massive outpouring of fan support so far, and at the end tossed in a pitch-perfect, “To whom it may concern… Get used to it.”
Speaking of “Star Wars,” think you’re response to the first teaser for “Star Wars: the Force Awakens” was pretty big? Well, time to raise your fanboy game, because this guy has everyone beat. Barely two days after the trailer hit the Internet, 22-year-old Arizona-based Instagram user Jordan Breckon went out and got the new ball droid featured in the clip tattooed on his leg. Now that’s dedication. Hope the robo-character turns out to be important to the story.
OK, so maybe this is newsy in the slightest, but come on, it’s so adorable. Here’s Oakley, an Australian shepherd puppy that responds to “Let It Go” from “Frozen” by perking up and howling. Of course, that’s the same thing my dog does when at ambulance and fire truck sirens, so I’m not sure how much of an endorsement of Idina Menzel’s singing this is after all. Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter: @nedrick
