Well, what do you know: celebrities are "fighting back" against the all-invasive, all-powerful media monopoly on their lives. Poor, poor things. I mean really, who would want their face plastered on web pages all around the world within minutes of stepping outside the safety of their homes, who would want to have their faces recognized by millions and millions of fans who are willing to pay good money in order to get closer to their idols? I mean really, that's gotta suck, right? And yes, I admit that the media is predisposed to excesses and that literally hunting celebrities down is nerve-racking and annoying - not to mention dangerous sometimes, but in the end, in the grand scheme of things, if we draw the line, I am sure that celebrities profit more than the media from all the over-exposure.

So, back to my original point: celebrities, led by Ashton Kutcher whose creative imagination seems to be on overdrive as well these days, are finally getting back at the media [insert your favorite evil laugh here]. How? By means of a TV show called "Pop Fiction", which airs at 10:30 on Sunday nights on E! Network. The concept is pretty straightforward: various celebrities agree to look or behave in such a way as to trick the paparazzi and allow them to spread false rumors. Last Sunday's episode featured two of my favorite skanks in the world: Paris "I Got Herpes" Hilton and faux-punk annoying brat Avril Lavigne. It was thus revealed that the whole "Paris Hilton steps out with her own personal Buddhist monk" story was fake, and that lil' Paris was screwing with our heads. Lavigne "tricked" us by sporting a false baby bump and pretending to go shopping at Baby Kitson on paparazzi hot spot Robertson Boulevard.

So, the big idea is to spread false rumors and make full use of the media's predisposition of drawing rapid conclusions about the comings and goings in celebrities' lives without waiting for confirmation. "Next time you read the tabloids, ask yourself if it's real or if it's pop fiction", warned Paris Hilton, the world's wisest jail bird of all times. But my question is, if they pulled off this stunt, what have they achieved? We all wrote up on two stories that turned out not to be true - the catch is, we all believed Paris would be dumb enough to hang around with a fake guru, and we all believed Avril to be enough of a media whore to really enjoy all the attention she got for her "mock baby shopping trip". So in the end, who punked who? Take a moment and think about it...