Yup.
Because the general public buys the movie tickets.
To make this concrete, let’s look at a possible scenario. Someone posts on an online message board “Wow, Mary Smith is really hot”. Folks on the message board go to IMDb, look up Mary Smith, and see her picture. Some of them decide “Yeah, she is really hot”, and become fans. Next time there’s a Mary Smith movie that comes out, there’s some folks who go to it just to see her. So her movies do a little better on average, so she’s in a bit more demand, so she can get paid more. Granted, this might not amount to very much, but for a measly 35 bucks? Sure, that’s worth it.
Again, I was talking about people who are already successful. A-/B+ level actors. I was not commenting on up-and-coming actors.
As Otto said, Google does a fine job in most cases, and to be honest, the $35 would be better spent creating a real or fictional “fan club” website for yourself, with bio and listing your agent etc.
I’ll give a real-world scenario. I see a movie, but don’t catch all the character names. I go to the IMDB movie listing and start clicking on various minor characters. If their pictures are there, I can say “nope, that’s not them” or “Yeah! That’s the guy!” then look to see what else they might have been in.
My husband bought a Treo (Palm Pilot + cell phone + web browser) specifically because we wanted to be able to access IMDB while we were out and about, especially just after seeing a movie. We look up to see what else a director has done, and what else actors have done, and what they’re going to do.
To hell with Google. I don’t even use Google, and how can I look up an actor’s name if I don’t know his/her name? Copy/pasting various actors names from IMDB to a search engine is a lot more hassle then just clicking on the damn name from the movie page. Who has time to go chasing actors, looking for pictures, if even they don’t care if people know who they are?
Actors should have their pictures up on IMDB. If they don’t, it means they don’t give a shit if the general public is interested in them. If that’s how they think, I’ll oblige by not being interested in them.
(Of course, it could also mean that they’re dirt dirt poor, as a lot of actors are, but $35 is not a lot to come up with considering the benefits).
I’m not quite sure I understand. If the situation you describe is the case, then why does virtually every big-time, solid, A-list actor have a photo (or, more likely, several) posted on IMDB?
I suppose that’s enough to cover domain name registration fees, but it’s certainly not going to pay for web design (both initial and ongoing), hosting, or promotion of the site.
$35 is nothing. It’s a bottle of Grey Goose, or, for some celebrities, fifteen minutes worth of cocaine. Hell, it’s probably less than 10% of what Hugh Grant paid for the cheapest hooker he ever nailed. (To be fair, that number would probably be closer to 80 or 90% for Eddie Murphy.)
If an actor can achieve any kind of boost in his career, even if it’s just greater recognition among fans, $35 seems like a pretty meager price tag. A pittance, really. I mean, what other form of promotion could you get for that kind of money? A classified ad in the Des Moines Register?
I’d think any non A-list actor would be interested in upping their Q rating , if only to be seen as more viable for commercial work. A face shot on IMDB could only help in that respect.
I’m sure I don’t know. I was simply repeating what an extremely small subset of actors, namely the A-/B+ level celebrities who play poker on the same site as me, have spoken to me, and who do not have an IMDB picture up, have said to me. My sample size is approximately three.
As I further noted in my initial post on the subject, the sentiment is obviously not uniform across the A list or even the B list.
If you would like to discuss the situation further, please feel free to log on to hollywoodpoker.com and ask the stars yourself.
Otto how do you know they are who they say they are?
How do I know you are really Otto?
If these A/B+ celebreties are ignoring Imdb then they are foolish. It is widely used and it would be in their best interest to make sure it is accurate. If they ignore it their bio may say they spent three years in a Turkish prison and are married to a wombat. Besides A/B+ celebreties have people to take care of that, agents and publicists. They should know better. You actually think public opinion means nothing?
Look for the spiked helmet
Celebrities are announced by the system when they sign on. Their chat is boldface and, on the download version, in red. When they are at a table, a star appears next to their names on the list of seated players and next to their names at the table itself. Since James Woods is heavily involved with the site I tend to believe that the celebrities are really the celebrities, although I suppose it could be the maid or somebody signing on and pretending to be Camryn Manheim or Michael Vartan.
I’m not Otto. I’m his doppelganger, Otto. You can tell us apart because I spell my name backwards.