I saw this morning that The Economist has a story on the sheer volume of celebrity news outlets and the need to fill them with a steady stream of news. (Fun factoid: "Britons buy almost half as many celebrity magazines as Americans do, despite have a population that is only one-fifth the size.") By extension, that also means celebrities have to be created—think Paris Hilton—just to fill the pages of the various tabloids and celeb magazines (like the truly awful U.S. version of OK!). With this in mind, over vacation, my cousin , who—like me—is embarrassingly good at keeping on top of celebrity goings-on, invented a new beach-house game: first, go get a copy of In Style (it doesn’t matter which one—any issue will do). Pore through the magazine and count how many “celebrities” are in that issue that you’ve never heard of. (No illicit Googling!) Then compare notes with the other players. One kink we didn’t work out: whether the person who knows the most celebrities is the winner or the loser.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor