Celebrity Social Networking

The other day Liz highlighted the blogging attributes of Danny DeVito and it immediately made me thing of the online presence of Jane Fonda.

The actress is active as both a blogger and on Twitter, where she first began posting about the rehearsals of a play which marked for her return to Broadway earlier this year.   Once the play finished though Fonda has kept on posting proving updated on her new love life, her travels and clarifying false rumours.

I wonder how long it will be before the social networking activities of actors will have an effect on them getting hired?   Does an actor with a big online following bring an audience with them?   Will future contracts have clauses written in to them requiring actors to post a certain number of posts during production and the promotional campaign?   Or will online profiles damage our ability to believe the actor is the character their playing?

Could an online strategy of this nature work for a small production within unknown performers?