Comedy Central host honored for Web site
A special achievement award also went to will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas frontman behind the popular “Yes We Can” video supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama. And movie director Michel Gondry won a special mention for encouraging filmmakers around the world to recreate their favorite movies ‘ the concept behind his film “Be Kind Rewind” ‘ and share them online.
Meanwhile, The New York Times’ online unit won eight regular Webby Awards in such categories as news, mobile listings and animation. The Onion satire site won seven, while Web sites for Apple Inc. and National Geographic magazine along with a user-confession site, PostSecret, won four awards each.
The awards will be presented during ceremonies June 9 and 10 in New York. Webby ceremonies are known for their zany tone, with winners limited to five-word acceptance speeches, including Al Gore’s “Please don’t recount this vote.”
As host of cable television’s “The Colbert Report,” Colbert has managed to persuade fans to inject his version of reality into the user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia while getting Web sites to add enough references to him that a Google search for “greatest living American” at one point brought his Colbert Nation Web site to the top.
In naming him Webby Person of the Year, judges recognized his online fan base and credited him with raising more than $250,000 online for an education charity.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Colbert spoke of how instantly he gets feedback from his audience online:
“The Web is essentially improvisational. … The Internet is the shortest, hardest wall against which your voice will echo back,” Colbert said. “It’s a big place, but, boy, you get an echo back really fast.”
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NEW YORK (AP) ‘ A lovesick former mental patient was convicted Tuesday of stalking and harassing Uma Thurman for more than two years, showing up on her front doorstep and movie set and sending the actress a series of creepy love letters.
Jack Jordan, a 37-year-old out-of-work lifeguard and pool cleaner, faces up to a year in jail. He was convicted of stalking and one count of aggravated harassment, and acquitted of two other harassment counts.
Jordan, who looked calm, was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. The judge ordered a psychiatric exam before his next court date June 2.
“I’ve learned some disturbing things about this defendant during this case. I am going to remand him for a psychiatric exam,” said state Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, who also presided in May 2002 when an accused stalker from Germany pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment of actor Richard Gere.
Defense lawyer George Vomvolakis requested protective custody, saying Jordan faces “specific threats because he’s a stalker. … He was actually assaulted” in jail after his arrest.
The verdict came after a weeklong trial that featured riveting testimony from the Academy Award-nominated actress, who told the jury she was “completely freaked out” by Jordan’s behavior.
Prosecutors say he had stalked the “Kill Bill” and “Pulp Fiction” star since 2005, when his crush on Thurman became so intense he said he had to be with her.
He showed up at Thurman’s doorstep and the set of her movie “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” and sent a series of bizarre cards and letters to her, including 20 of them while he was locked up at a mental institution.