the buzz log
Oh, To Be Young Again!
There's a growing trend in Search: Looking up pictures of older (but not necessarily "old") celebrities from when they had a few less wrinkles.
Leading the charge is legendary model and actress Brigitte Bardot. After her recent controversial remarks on Muslims, folks were reminded of her younger days as a sex symbol. Lookups on "brigitte bardot young" scorched the Search box this past week.
There's also a lot of interest in seeing what Cindy McCain looked like as a younger woman. The possible future first lady has inspired many a searcher to look for pics of her from back in the day. Queries on "cindy mccain young" should continue their ascent as the presidential campaign heats up.
But the ladies Bardot and McCain aren't the only celebs inspiring an aire of nostalgia. We ran the numbers and assembled a list of the most popular celebs with "young" attached to their name. Some are the obvious older beauties (Sophia Lauren, Elizabeth Taylor), but there were a number of suprises. Who knew so many people want to see pictures of Clint Eastwood as a young gunslinger?
Filed under: Celebrities, Age
Icons Hit the Big 5-0
Madonna is turning 50 this summer. That's right—the woman who attempted (and thankfully failed) to bring cone bras to the masses has been walking the earth for half a century.
And she's not the only icon celebrating the big 5-0 this year. Michael Jackson will have 50 candles on his cake this August. Actor, environmentalist, and cell phone aficionado Alec Baldwin just turned 50. And the artist formerly known as "the artist formerly known as Prince" turns 50 in a few months. Time, it seems, waits for no man, even if he happens to be extremely funky.
We expect lookups for Madonna, Jacko, and Prince to climb the buzz charts in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we tracked down the top twenty "how old is..." searches from the past seven days. Searchers are always interested in learning the ages of their favorite celebs—even if the glitterati would prefer you think they're all 28.
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How Many Birthday Candles?
It's often said that wisdom comes from age and experience. In certain cases (Britney, anyone?), the adage doesn't seem to ring true. But as adults, we can look back and admit that our parents were probably right when they refused to let us join the circus.
In the presidential primary circus, age is an inevitable issue—especially when one candidate for president is a generation older than another. Swipes have been taken at John McCain because of his age, and searchers have dialed up "how old is john mccain," "john mccain age," and "mccain age" in increasing numbers this week. (He happens to be 72 years old.) A solid 45% of those lookups have come from folks aged 35-54.
The political curiosity doesn't stop there. People are also asking "how old is barack obama" (age: 46) and "how old is hillary clinton" (age: 60). We don't see many queries about Mitt Romney's age (age: 60), and Cindy McCain (age: 53) is the only spouse that pops into the top age searches.
Who else are searchers curious about? Take a gander at the top 20 "how old is" searches…
All About Age
This season's premiere of "Dancing With the Stars" came loaded with questions. Like, who is this Albert Reed dude? Or, where are the "josie maran pics"? And, most importantly, "how old is wayne newton"?
The taut-faced entertainer will likely become this season's sentimental fave, a la Jerry Springer or George Hamilton. However after his first twirl around the floor, searchers weren't fascinated by his footwork. Judging from searches on "wayne newton age," they simply wanted to know when the showman made his first appearance on Earth. The bio on his official site was MIA, but according to Wikipedia, Mr. Las Vegas was born in 1942—which makes him a spry 65.
The "Dancing" results show also had an ageist angle with an appearance by country legend Dolly Parton. After the blonde icon strutted her ample stuff, searchers were compelled to ask "how old is dolly parton." It's not the first time Ms. Parton's age has sparked buzz, but it did inspire us to check what other celeb birthdays were in question. Here are this week's top 20 "how old is..." searches:
A couple more notes on age...
—Four of our top 20 are stars of "High School Musical."
—Besides the ageless Mr. Newton, "Dancing" also spurred searches on the age of female dancers Marie Osmond and Jane Seymour.
Filed under: Dancing With the Stars, Age
The Old and the Beautiful
Maybe he wasn't ready for his close-up. Or maybe people haven't seen him in a while. Whatever the reason, as soon as Prince sauntered across stage at the Super Bowl halftime show, searches on his age started a fast and furious climb up Buzz.
The long-rockin' enthusiast of purple isn't the only one to spark questions about longevity, though. Over the past month, searchers also asked "how old is keke palmer" and "how old is nat wolff." They wondered about the age of the Earth, inquired about the years of Brenda Song, and investigated Jeremy Renner's maturity. Then, just to show that the Web doesn't care if you're a lady or not, searchers demanded to know "how old is Vanna White." Let the wheel of time spin once more!
Even at Yahoo! News, where stories of war and weather dominate the headlines, searchers regularly seek the length of time individuals have logged on this Earth. Here's this week's top 10 list...
Filed under: Celebrities, Age
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford 400 | Breakout! |
| 2 | Indonesia Ferry | Breakout! |
| 3 | Jordan Chandler | 3481% |
| 4 | Evan Chandler | 2322% |
| 5 | American Music Awards | 1841% |
| 6 | John F. Kennedy | 1529% |
| 7 | Turkey Stuffing Recipes | 1361% |
| 8 | Liam Hemsworth | 1172% |
| 9 | Lou Dobbs | 1142% |
| 10 | Hendrick Motorsports | 888% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Friday | +340 | 1290 |
| 2 | NFL | +489 | 670 |
| 3 | Jennifer Lopez | +451 | 515 |
| 4 | New Moon | -67 | 250 |
| 5 | American Music Awards | +236 | 249 |
| 6 | UFC | -36 | 239 |
| 7 | Miley Cyrus | +66 | 169 |
| 8 | Hulu | -11 | 154 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
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