Being a celebrity can be tough. To keep yourself hot and in the headlines, you have to make sure that you are regularly 'papped' leaving the most exclusive nightspot in town, or seen on the arm of someone who's almost - but not quite - as famous as you.

But a new way of measuring celebrity is evolving, thanks to the internet. Anyone who's anyone will, of course, have their own official website, from Robbie Williams to Keith Harris.

Just as businesses use the net to promote their products and services, so those in the public eye use it to promote their latest film, show, book or album.

And there are absolutely thousands of official websites, some good and others seemingly posted online as an afterthought. The net is also host to legions of fansites created by fans for fans and usually independent of the artists themselves.

But, in our celeb-obsessed society we also like to know where the biggest stars hang out, what they're up to and what skeletons they have hanging in their closets.

There are plenty of magazines on the shelves that deal with gossip, rumour and celebrity scoops, but many of the most tantalising titbits can be found on the web.

The online grapevine offers many exclusive snippets (of varying degrees of truthfulness) about the secret and not-so secret lives of the biggest names in sport and showbiz.

Read on to find out more about the precarious relationship the stars have with the net as we visit the best (and worst) celebrity websites, as well as the sites the celebs would rather you didn't see.

Make it official
When you want to find out more about a particular celebrity, your first online port of call should be his or her official site.

Here, you'll usually find a selection of biographical information and, if you're lucky, a smattering of multimedia, such as images, video and audio clips.

On an official site you can guarantee that all material is legal and that any information you read will (hopefully) be accurate.

Frequently visiting a good official site can also give fans the sense that they are connected to the star. This is particularly true in the case of David Bowie's official site, BowieNet.

As well as establishing his own ISP, Bowie has set up an exclusive online club for fans who are willing to dip into their pockets.

Sign up to BowieNet and you not only get access to the man himself courtesy of Q&A sessions, David's online journal and the regular visits he pays to the site's message boards, but you get access to exclusive content, including music and videos.

Robbie Williams, too, rewards his fans for their allegiance. Register with the Robster's free 'inner sanctum' and get a heads-up on buying concert tickets, and gain exclusive access to content including web chats and images.

Although when we visited, the site said that Robbie was on holiday in LA, which may explain why he was not breathing down his web team's neck and demanding to know why his tour information was so out of date.

However, not all official sites will give fans what they want. On the one hand, ex Mickey Mouse Club members Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera give their fans access to great images, 30-second streams of songs and various cool downloads, such as screensavers and wallpaper.

But even a massive star such as Will Smith, who has a career that spans both music and film, has a site that does not seem to adequately reflect his work.

If you are a fan of Will's albums, the site has made sure that you are pretty well catered for with plenty of music video streams, but film buffs will probably be disappointed with the brief synopses that sum up his acting career.

Miss independent
Independent sites serve a useful purpose for fans, particularly if a star is not very well known or isn't part of the current jet set. For instance, Diana Dors may once have been considered the British Marilyn Monroe, enjoying the adulation of thousands.

These days, of course, there's little hope of an official website for the busty star of such films as Yield to the Night. Step forward The Diana Dors Memorial Homepage.

This site contains a detailed biography plus enough movie and glamour stills to help preserve Diana's legacy.

Fansites can often be even better than their official equivalents. For example, your favourite band's official site is likely to be regulated by their record company, which has their client's image to look after.

Depending on the record company and the act themselves, the official site could be little more than a bit of online puff to promote the latest single or album.

And you can certainly forget about seeing dodgy pics from the star in question's past, or messages from old school chums relating stories about what your idol got up to in the classroom.

Hunt around the web for a good fansite and you might be pleasantly surprised by the range and wealth of info on offer. Take Fame Academy winner Alex Parks, for example.

Her official homepage is perfectly adequate, but is entirely eclipsed by the Alex Parks Online fansite.

Once registered at the unofficial site, you can swap Alex stories in the extremely busy forums, and you will see that dedicated fans have uploaded video clips of TV appearances, music, personal snaps taken of Alex at various gigs, and scans of magazine articles.

"We are a fansite for Alex Parks and aren't in contact with Alex, Polydor Records, BBC, or anyone else related to Alex," explains the team behind Alex Parks Online.

"We are just fans and decided to set up the site back in August before Alex had even won Fame Academy.

"We like to bring the most up-to-date news, images and appearances and, when we can, media. Also we set up the forum which has fans from all around the world in all age groups who chat with each other."

I'm free
Official sites tend to be very clued up on digital rights management and copyright law, which means that a musician's official website is unlikely to let you download free tracks that could be illegally swapped on a peer-to-peer site.

Fansites tend not to worry about this sort of thing, and online tribute sites often include free images and downloadable goodies galore.

But, unlike official sites, not everything you find on some fan-created websites is 100 per cent legal, and content that could be considered to be copyright infringement is rife.

It's possible that some celebs tolerate this sort of thing because of the free publicity it provides. It's equally likely, however, that unofficial sources of such content could find themselves on the receiving end of a cease and desist order once they have been singled out by the celeb's lawyers.

Also, the very independent nature of fansites means that some of the online 'facts' cannot always be trusted.

You're a star
Startling as it might seem, there are still plenty of celebs who haven't yet cottoned on to the idea of hosting their own official site.

This appears to be true of many film stars, probably because they don't have the same sort of management and funding behind them that record companies provide for stars of the music world. Left to their own devices, movie stars seem to consider their presence on the web as less important than their appearances on the silver screen.

Hollywood celebs should take a leaf out of Michael Douglas's book. The chisel-jawed star of Wall Street has a great official homepage, where fans can view video clips of premieres and find plenty of information about his work.

In the absence of an official web presence, however, fansites can help to plug the online gap for fans. In the case of Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze, for example, the actor liked his German fansite so much that he adopted it as his official one.

Not all stars are as lucky as Mr Swayze when it comes to fansites, however. For example, try typing 'Ewan McGregor fansite' into Google. The results bring up around 3,000 web pages, not all of which are of top star quality.

We found that Ewanspotting, with its busy forums and wide selection of images and info, was on a par with many good official sites.

Ewan-McGregor, on the other hand, turned out to be an unknown directory that lets you search for goods ranging from 'star war [sic] toy' to 'weight loss drugs'.

Sometimes a fansite can at first appear to be a good one, such as Orlando Bloom Online, which has plenty of glossy images and interesting info about the rising Lord of the Rings star.

Unfortunately, when we logged on, a swathe of unwanted pop-ups were launched, including an advert for Viagra.

Pop-ups tend to make regular appearances on many fansites, especially those that are hosted by web space providers that offer their services for free provided that sites are accompanied by lots of advertising.

A good pop-up stopper, such as the one included with the Google Toolbar will soon nip the offending ads in the bud.

Listen, do you want to know a secret?
Whereas both official and fansites exist to promote a celebrity and their work, it's on the gossip pages where you will be able to really quench your thirst for celebrity news.

Naturally, much of what you'll find at these sites is of a sensationalist nature; a married movie star being caught inflagrante with a famous singer, or a famous sports personality spotted misbehaving in a nightclub, for example.

Also, the veracity of these online whispers and insinuations may not always be guaranteed, so opinions over their usefulness are likely to be split.

Nevertheless, the net makes it easier than ever for people from all over the world to seek out and share the very latest celebrity gossip.

Given the amount of printed publications that dedicate themselves to celebrities and their every movement, it will come as no surprise to learn that many of these mags also maintain a presence online.

The National Enquirer's official site offers a brief sniff of its leading celebrity scandal stories, although UK gossip-hounds may not always be familiar with faces that are common currency in the US.

Hello! magazine's site, on the other hand, is unlikely to contain anything that will make you choke on your tea, but at least you will recognise the names of the Brit-centric celebs that it covers.

Even the gossip columns of newspapers can be found online, including The Mirror's infamous loose-lipped ladies, the 3am Girls, who specialise in mildly scandalous celebrity stories.

Like their checkout-rack counterparts, all of these sites are legally responsible for the articles they publish.

This is also true of web exclusive gossip sites, such as The Bubble Burst, which fills you in on what former stars (such as Bucks Fizz) are now up to, and Digital Spy, which is a great resource for finding out the latest entertainment industry news.

These sorts of sites are usually more reliable in terms of whether the online stories are actually true, as they are at risk of being sued if they are not.

This area of the law is a little murky, but in general it does not apply to forums, including those at Digital Spy.

Here, culpability lies with the individuals posting on the forum, and host sites have a responsibility to remove libellous information if requested.

Hot gossip
The web has also bred a new type of scandal sheet, one that relies on anonymous submissions from its members, rather than making any potentially libellous comment itself.

For example, the legendary gossip site Popbitch gleans its juicy tittle-tattle from members of the public who post stories on its message board.

Popbitch then includes the best tales of the unexpected in a weekly email that goes out to thousands of subscribers.

If you do log-on to Popbitch yourself, be aware that the message board and the weekly email will usually contain extremely strong language, and content that some people may find offensive.

Popbitch's system of gossip-mongering is, however, much less likely to be accurate, because there is no way of knowing whether the source of the story is reliable or not.

Consequently, many stories on Popbitch are obviously made up, but occasionally, even the most outrageous-sounding posts can later reveal themselves to be uncannily close to the truth.

Regular users will notice that Popbitch posts sometimes turn up in the mainstream media as full-blown celeb stories.

Similarly, the Groupie Central's Message Board relies on individuals for its online gossip. Once again, be warned that much of the content is sexually explicit and may offend.

Users often use the site to swap stories about their alleged intimate contact with various celebrities. Like Popbitch, you cannot guarantee that any gossip you read is true.

But, as with all gossip websites that rely on individual contributions, there is always the chance that you will hit on a true celebrity story that otherwise you would not have known about, or something that's just too hot for the mainstream media to handle.

Look at me
If you are a celebrity, the internet can be a double edged sword. Because the net is so public, virtually any individual can post messages about you or set up a website that could misrepresent you and your work.

But the net also offers a unique opportunity for self-promotion. It also allows you to keep in close contact-with your fans, no matter what country they are in, and reward them for their support with exclusive content and advance information about what you are up to.

As a fan, there are plenty of resources - both official and independent - to help you keep abreast of your favourite celebrity news and gossip.

And if you can't find a site that does your own favourite celeb justice, then head straight to Webactive's Build Your Own section, where you'll find all you need to create your very own 15 megabytes of online fame.

See also:

Cinema websites under the spotlight

Planning a trip to the cinema is made a whole lot easier by the internet. We take a look at the cinema chains' websites to find out how easy it is to discover what's on, check out the movies and book tickets online.  07 Jun 2004

Cyber Celeb - Tom Cruise

A look at a selection of websites devoted to the man with all the right moves - Tom Cruise  18 Mar 2004

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