Kate Winslet hit in Facebook phoneys war

THE final straw was Kate Winslet calling Angelina Jolie, her fellow Oscar nominee, a “fat-lipped crazy cow”. That was when the monitors employed by Facebook, the social networking website, abruptly closed her account.

The real Winslet would have known nothing of the insult. Instead, the British actress had become the latest victim of the trend known as “Fakebooking”. In the past few days, as bookmakers reduced the odds against her taking home the best actress statuette at tonight’s Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Winslet has received the unwelcome accolade of having the most sites devoted to her by internet pranksters.

False sites in her name have overtaken the number created for Britney Spears, the pop star, Sarah Palin, the colourful Republican former vice-presidential candidate, and President Barack Obama.

On Friday there were still a dozen Facebook sites claiming to have been set up by Winslet, several with nude photographs illegally lifted from her Oscar-nominated film The Reader. But they were mild versions of the dozens of often libellous sites that have been removed since last weekend.

In one, Winslet appeared to be engaged in a war of words with Jolie, calling her a “blood-sucking vampire” – and nastier. A fake Jolie responded: “Now I know why you pretended to forget my name at the Golden Globes, bitch. I’m getting out my favorite [sic] blade and I’ll be waiting for you on the red, red carpet.”

There is no bad blood between the two actresses, although Winslet had trouble recalling that Jolie had also been nominated in her tearful acceptance speech at the Golden Globes awards ceremony last month. Neither actress uses Facebook.

Facing claims that up to 40% of its 70m sites are fake, Facebook has tried to clean itself up by “deauthorising” thousands of entries, in the process managing to excise a handful of genuine celebrity sites, including David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy account.

Lindsay Lohan, the American actress whose account was also closed, was upset. Writing on MySpace, she declared: “Wow! I was in shock. Here I am going onto Facebook to talk to some of my friends, and they’re thinking I’m the fake of myself.”

Facebook says it can be difficult to trace Fakebookers, but warns that penalties for identity theft can be severe. Last year Mathew Firsht, a businessman, won £22,000 compensation after a former friend created a site in his name that made false claims about his sexuality and finances.

On Friday a document leaked on the internet suggested that Winslet will win an Oscar and Slumdog Millionaire, the British film, will get three. Organisers declared this, too, was a fake, while Winslet was said to be amused by her Fakebooking elevation.

Kate Winslet hit in Facebook phoneys war – Celebrity Portal