As Twitter slowly ekes its way into the public consciousness – and it has a considerable way still to go – various… people you’ve heard of… or might have heard of… famous people… OK, celebrities… various celebrities have signed up and started twittering.
So who are these slebs, and where be they? Here are an assortment of folk you may have come across by rough category.
Politicians and government
Chris Reed has already discovered that there are only four MPs currently on Twitter – and that’s if you count Number 10.
- 10 Downing Street (official tweets from the PM’s house)
- Tom Watson (Labour MP for West Bromich East)
- Lynne Featherstone (LibDem MP for Hornsey & Wood Green)
- Jo Swinson (LibDem MP for East Dunbartonshire)
- Grant Shapps (Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield)
- Al Gore (former VP of the US of A)
- Andy Reed (Labour MP for Loughborough)
- Graham Watson (Lib Dem MEP for South West England and Gibraltar)
The UK Parliament also has a feed, as there are official and unofficial accounts for various government departments. And, of course, there are various feeds for US election candidates, including the now fairly quiet (and never that human) Barack Obama feed.
Musicians
- Britney Spears (formerly @therealbritney, she’s a singer and the posts come from her team and herself)
- Dave Matthews (of the Dave Matthews Band)
- MC Hammer (yes, seriously, MC Hammer of “U Can’t Touch This” fame)
- Patrick Wilson (the drummer from Weezer)
- Imogen Heap (singer I saw live in about 1997)
Actors and broadcasters
- Brea Grant (plays Daphne Millbrook in Heroes)
- Greg Grunberg (plays Matt Parkman in Heroes)
- Robert Llewellyn (actor, comedian, broadcaster and writer who played Kryten in Red Dwarf)
- Wil Wheaton (best known as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, he’s a blogger, writer, stand-up comedian, poker player…)
- John Cleese (actor, writer, comedian and Python, probably most famous for his party political broadcast for the Liberal/SDP Alliance)
- Stephen Fry (of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, QI and V for Vendetta fame – as if you didn’t know)
- Rory Cellan-Jones (BBC technology – and sometimes business – correspondent)
- Tina Fey (from Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock)
- David H. Lawrence (plays Eric Doyle in Heroes)
- Jonathan Ross (of Jonathan Ross Show fame)
Writers and artists
- Paul Cornell (writer of three episodes of <DOCTOR.WHO>, plus other TV, books and comics)
- Warren Ellis (author of comics and novels)
- Zoe Margolis (author of the book and blog Girl with a One Track Mind)
plus various tech journalists.
Sportists
- Andy Murray (tennis player of “Come on, Andy!” fame)
- Will Carling (described on his Twitter feed as “old has-been rugby player”)
Internet celebrities
- Robert Scoble (blogger and technical evangelist)
- Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com)
and no doubt, by definition, many more.
So… who have I missed?
How could you have missed Gary Coleman
http://twitter.com/garycoleman
Whatchoo talkin ’bout Willis
Although it may not be the real one!!
Maybe I need a new category for fake celebs 🙂
Thought of a few more real American ones: musician and internet celeb @jonathancoulton, PC from US “I’m a Mac” ads @hodgman, and basketballer @the_real_shaq
MPs – @grantshapps (it must be the real one – it’s too boring to be fake)
Writers – @andydiggle (The Losers, Batman, Judge Dredd, Hellblazer), @sispurrier (2000AD, Contract), @al_ewing (2000AD, various Abaddon Press books), @davidbishop (ex-2000AD editor, Doctor Who audio),
Artists – @simonfraser (Nikolai Dante from 2000AD – you may have started to observe a pattern here).
Actors, Broadcasters – @tinafey (maybe she should be called @realfakesarahpalin)
I didn’t know about, and was pleased to discover, both Robert Llewellyn and Tina Fey, so thanks to you both Will and James!
Hi Will – thanks for tipping me off about Jo/Lynne first of all. I’m still looking (hoping?) for more.
In the meantime, you might want to add @richardbranson to your list?
NASA also have feeds for various space missions, so you can get tweets from:
@MarsPhoenix (well, not any more)
@MarsRovers (Spirit and Opportunity share one ID)
@MarsScienceLab (the new rover launching in 2010)
@CassiniSaturn (orbiting Saturn and lots of Titan fly-bys)
@NASA (boring)
Other cool astronomy twitterers:
@Chandrayaan1 (Indian Moon mission)
@lowflyingrocks (NEO objects)
As for fake celebs, some are geniunely funny:
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/lil-faux-tweet-the-8-most-entertaining-fake-twitter-users.php
Thanks for the extra suggestions (I was restricting to people but if you want more inanimates there’s the marvellous @towerbridge, plus my own @jubileeline and it’s tube siblings).
I browsed the (presumably fake) @LeVarBurton earlier and am still laughing at “The only thing more delicious than a ham and cheese melt with horseradish mayo is Gates McFadden’s tears.”
And of course @girlonetrack is Zoe Margolis/Abby Lee, author of the book Girl With a One Track Mind and the blog of the same name (give or take a hyphen).
And:
Actor David H. Lawrence, who’s Eric Doyle on Heroes, is @dhlawrencexvii
Jonathan Ross has signed up as @Wossy