The Superficial

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The Superficial is a website devoted to celebrity gossip. It was started on May 23, 2004 and has quickly grown in popularity. The Superficial is a part of Anticlown Media. The site is updated several times a day and has an Alexa ranking of 1,234 as of February 09, 2007.^[1] It was named one of the five best celebrity news websites by a Chicago Tribune writer.^[2]

The Superficial is known for its sharply negative and biting wit. Unlike other celebrity news sites such as E! Online and TMZ.com, The Superficial lampoons the behavior of celebrities, to a degree even greater than Perez Hilton. In particular, The Superficial currently focuses a disproportionate number of items to the often drunken misadventures of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan, which it has dubbed "The Unholy Trinity." The Superficial is also unafraid to make boldly cruel statements, such as referring to Heidi Klum and Seal's first son as an "ugly mole creature." The Superficial sometimes posts "Not Safe For Work" (NSFW) photographs of celebrities, notably Spears and Tara Reid, in various states of public undress.

[edit] Authors

The Superficial consists primarily of misogynistic comments on celebrity news and gossip stories broken by other gossip/news sources. The format of each story begins with an introductory synopsis, followed by a quote from a celebrity or other news source, and then a paragraph of acidic commentary. Readers are able to post comments after each gossip item, which are often very crude, repetitive, and uninteresting.

Karl Wang, founder of Anticlown Media, has written some of the posts on the website.