Bored with Fantasy Football? Then sign up for Celebdaq and start tradingyour favourite stars, writes Shane Hegarty.
It has been a good week to invest in Ulrika Jonsson. Taking part in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, added to her usual quota of tabloid coverage, sent her share price rocketing. Charlotte Church, Sadie Frost and Michael Jackson have all peaked as tabloid interest in them wanes. The market hasn't made up its mind on Graham Norton, however. His share price has fluctuated all week.
Since it began in July, 2002, 130,000 people have registered to play Celebdaq, the BBC's online celebrity stock exchange. You log on and use virtual cash to buy stocks in celebrities. Values rise or fall depending on demand. Achievements mean nothing, press coverage everything. Queen Elizabeth is lowly priced; obscure pop stars ride high. Every Friday, the column inches a celebrity has garnered over the week are translated into a dividend and paid out to investors, with broadsheet coverage being especially lucrative.
You start with a virtual £10,000 and build from there. The real prize money is far more modest, at a paltry £100, or about €150, for the week's top investor.
The game's success has made some people very uncomfortable. There have been questions about whether the BBC should be using licence payers' cash to fund such frivolity, in which success often depends on gambling on the tawdry misfortunes of others. "If you have a value system, then the idea of a public-service organisation promoting other people's misery for fun has to be an instant no-no," complained a columnist in the Guardian. "It's morally dubious and it pays peanuts," pointed out another, in the Sunday Telegraph, while admitting she had made £15,000 in 24 hours by investing in Carol Vorderman.
Actress Sadie Frost's post-natal depression and the break-up of her marriage saw her price rocket from £1.88 to £30.20. John Leslie, the TV presenter at the centre of recent rape allegations, was this week moving well. When Zoë Ball was first listed, the administrators overpriced her, at £42.85, in the belief that the very public break-up of her marriage would attract investment.
Singer Rik Waller has been hotly tipped as one to watch after press speculation that his weight is seriously affecting his health. The Pope was listed at first but withdrawn after complaints. Last week, some visitors to the site's message board let slip the name of a footballer who has injuncted the UK press, to stop them publishing a kiss-and-tell story about him. His name was withdrawn from the board, although it didn't affect prices, as he isn't even listed.
The success of the project has made the amorality more comfortable to live with for the BBC. "It is column inches rather than the content of the papers that result in dividends being paid out," a spokesman said last week. In fact, it is becoming de rigueur for those listed to announce that they play it themselves. Elton John, for example, complained that at £2 he was worth less than a Big Mac meal.
It is not the first of its kind, with sites such as Hollywood Stock Exchange and Popex having already been successful. But the spin-off television show, on the digital-only BBC3, is the first to be based entirely on a website. Presenter Patrick O'Connell, a former BBC Wall Street correspondent, canvasses stockbrokers and showbiz journalists. "You can't shake a stick in Britain without poking a celebrity in the eye," he said recently. "The famous have become commodities. For eight months, Celebdaq investors have been getting their own back. They trade them . . . like orange juice futures."
It is a natural progression of the obsession with celebrity, a share in the personalities whom the public invest so much attention in anyway. That trading peaks between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., about the time the tabloids hit the shelves, also suggests plenty of people take it very seriously indeed.
Some of the Irish celebrities listed have been stagnant of late. Bob Geldof is a lowly £1.01 a share. Bono's recent installation as a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur didn't stop his share price falling all week, to £1.81. Roy Keane has been available at the same price. At £2.67, meanwhile, Bryan McFadden has been moving well, perhaps making up for his You're A Star disappointment.
Some tips for the future? Buy Daniel Day-Lewis low and sell Jennifer Lopez high. And keep watching the stars.
www.bbc.co.uk/celebdaq
