Reservoir blogs: Is Tarantino publishing his diary online?

Celebrity impostors no longer need plastic surgery to be like the stars they covet - not when they have blogs.

A would-be fan of Quentin Tarantino, the writer and director of such movies as Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs, among others, has created a pulp fiction of his own, web-style. He or she has penned a web log, or diary, that appears to some people to be the movie star's very own, complete with photo, Hollywood bravado and his astrological sign. Those impressed with the ruse include Tarantino's publicist, who said "the guy's done a really good job."

"But it isn't [Tarantino's]," said Bumble Ward, a spokeswoman for the director. She added that the movie star has been too busy to notice it, but his camp doesn't plan any formal action to have the blog taken down. "It doesn't seem to be doing anyone any harm," she said.

Email requesting comment from the blog's creator, who hosts the site on Google-owned Blogger and has a Tarantino-styled email address from Yahoo!, was not returned.

In Hollywood terms, blogging has become as fashionable as Oscar night. Everyone from the fictional Barbie (Mattel) to broadcast journalist Al Roker has one, so it only makes sense that people would try to impersonate the famous online.

An updated, hipper version of the late 1990s "home page," blogs give ordinary and famous people alike a forum to talk about politics, their community or what they had for breakfast - if anyone cares to read.

Rumours have swirled that one anonymously-written blog, by someone named Rance, is actually penned by Ben Affleck or another famous actor.

Companies including Google and Microsoft are using blogs to give outsiders a feel for their corporate cultures. Some school teachers even employ blogs as tools to help children express themselves better.

But perhaps the fad plays well to the narcissism of fame, because more and more well-known people have started blogs or journals. Pop musicians Moby and Billy Corgan; national columnist Dave Barry; and the actress Melanie Griffith all keep blogs, if semi-regularly.

Dallas Mavericks owner and Broadcast.com founder Mark Cuban recently started a web log.

Blogs may have climbed the strata of net prominence thanks in part to Google, the search engine of choice for many web surfers. It often uncovers links to blogs in its search results and seems to rely on them to determine popularity of a subject or query term.

The Tarantino blog, which started last week, sloughs off questions of its authenticity with Hollywood hubris.

"If I make a national announcement this'll just become a publicity stint, and I never intended it to be that way. This is for the fans, and if they trust me then fine - if they don't, all I can say is that convincing a few of them isn't worth ruining it by telling reporters who'll post it all over the 'net and daily news. In this case the juice ain't worth the squeeze."

Stefanie Olsen writes for CNET News.com