LonelyGirl15’s San Francisco photographer
As the LonelyGirl15 hoax blew wide open yesterday, a side mention in the NY Times story this morning described one “Grant Steinfeld, a software engineer in San Francisco,” as an on-set photographer who “offered his photographs of Ms. Rose as proof of his involvement in the Lonelygirl15 videos.”
See more about Steinfeld after the break.
The mystery behind LG was broken largely by the 18-year-old son of Silicon Valley Watcher blog author Tom Foremski. Matthew Foremski put together clues and uncovered a bunch of photos of the actress who — it has now been revealed — played “LonelyGirl15.”
As for Steinfeld’s contribution, it seems to have been limited to taking a few on-set photographs — which were printed with the online version of the New York Times story — and setting up a website for LG which was later abandoned. He confirms several facts in the hoax in the article.
I think Tom Foremski said it best, on the SVW site, about why this story has any global importance:
“But this is not a story about an actress acting out a script. This is a story with a larger message; it shows how a partnership between mainstream media and blogger media can produce real results, real fast.
Both groups took the story further, building off each others work.
This was in no way the blogosphere versus the mainstream media. It was a great example of how the two groups can work together, to uncover information that others tried to hide.
Yes, the subject matter of this story was not about anything that matters that much. But imagine this same type of cooperation on really important stories–that’s what excites me.”
full story:
http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2006/09/lessons_from_th.php
In my opinion, it’s strange to call this “cooperation.” That’s like saying Entertainment Tonight is “cooperating” with Arnold Schwartzenegger’s political career by broadcasting gossip about Schw’s latest film. It’s not cooperation, it’s kerfluffle.
I’m not sure why this was such a surprise. After hearing about this chick’s videos, I checked them out and there was no doubt they were NOT something by some chica out there in the world, but something really smooth and pro.