Stop the Presses!!! Urgent Bulletin...

...Amanda Congdon has left the video blog Rocketboom!

All right, I confess; I don't know who the hell she is either.

Apparently though 300,000 people downloaded her videoblog a day, which is 299,990 more than view this site on a regular basis. If someone had just told me the numbers and I hadn't read the article I would have guessed that the daily broadcast involved her removing key articles of her clothing and being physically accosted by overstimulated fraternity brothers, or whatever they do on those kinds of sites.

Not only that, but this Rocketboom thingy is apparently so popular that it got Congdon representation from noted Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, and a guest shot on CSI:Crime Scene Investigation (so-named because if it was just called "CSI" people might think it meant something like "Colonoscopic Survey Interogation" - because it sounds just like the kind of acronym you mind hear at a proctologists office...or so I'm told).

If you ask me, this is terribly unfair. We pride ourselves on the careful and artful writing of our pieces, and consider our work to be of the highest quality one can find on such a silly blog. Yet, I've never so much as appeared on the local news in the background of one those crime scene shots where several people stand around and see who can make the most ridculous face on camera, while the coroner wheels the corpse out on a guerney. It isn't as though I haven't tried.

Stew of course made an appearance on a live episode of the Drew Carey show once, reportedly frightening Colin Mochrie so much that he lost most of his hair.

Nuffy has made several apperances in the work of our own (missing) Jorge Carlito Viejo, usually as a piece of furniture or a small muffin.

However, do a so-so video blog for a couple of years - not much longer than the lifespan of this blog - and all of sudden Hollywood is crawling all over you like Billy Bob Thornton in an Oscar-bound limo. Does quality count for nothing in this age? Is that all that people want from entertainment in this world, three-minutes of laughs and a bit of virtual tail?

Of course it is. Who am I kidding?

Congdon says she'll be doing something with video-blogging in it as she wouldn't want to leave that behind. After all, she has been doing that for a whole 2 years now!

Anyway, the only person feeling lower than me about this whole sordid corruption is the founder of the Rocketboom thingy, Andrew Michael Baron. He gave Congdon her start in the medium, and has been left out to dry as she saunters off to Hollywood looking for her star to rise. "I'm really nervous about the transition, " the AP article quotes him as confessing.

(I'm guessing they're not looking for a 40-something, slightly paunchy male with a peculiar accent. Think Colin Mochrie, only with a full head of hair and minus the incredible dancing ability.)

Don't feel so bad though mate. I give her two failed sitcom pilots and a GAP ad before she'll be begging to lick Jared's boots in a bloomin' Subway commercial. A year from now you'll have to file a restraining order to keep her from begging you for a second chance.

...That or you might get her to wave back at you from the red carpet at the People's Choice Awards.

Update: Joanne Colan is the new host of Rocketboom. She has a nice Southern Regional English (that's British) accent. CSI should be calling anyday now Joanne. Tell them you won't do any of those kinds of scenes the way Amanda did.