With apologies to William Blake?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal gun or knife
Could kill a has-been actor's wife?
Pardon my play on poetry, but the Robert Blake murder mystery (#12) seems to be the one new item on the minds of Lycos users this week.
The dead person involved is not Blake, child star of The Little Rascals who grew up to play a cop on TV's Baretta and a killer in the film In Cold Blood. The deceased is Blake's wife of only six months, a former small-time grifter named Bonnie Lee Bakley. Roughly two-thirds of queries about the case asked for Blake, rather than Bakley.
While Blake is only one of many suspects, Hollywood is gearing up for a celebrity trial that will be far weirder than the O.J. Simpson affair. Bakley was shot to death in Blake's car, outside his favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, while he ran inside to get something he had forgotten. That something was a gun. You can't make this stuff up.
MOM WINS: Mother's Day conquered Dragonball (#2) to take the top spot. Searches for flowers jumped 60 percent; flowers are at their most popular the week of Mother's Day and the week of Valentine's Day.
MUMMY POWER: The Mummy Returns (#25) continues to rise on the Lycos 50, as befits its status as the summer's first blockbuster. Brendan Fraser and his co-stars are definitely seeing the effect. Searches have been exploding over the last two weeks for Patricia Velasquez (up 900 percent), Oded Fehr (up 800 percent), Rachel Weisz (up 300 percent), and Fraser (up 250 percent).
In fact, the one Mummy star not seeing a big boost is the biggest name: wrestler The Rock is up only 20 percent since the movie opened.
The next blockbuster, Pearl Harbor, nearly makes the list this week. When searches for the historical event and the movie are combined, it is #54. Interest in war history is stronger than ever right now, with World War II (#19) breaking into the Top 20 and the Vietnam War (#50) making its first appearance of the year.
MOLTEN METAL: Was it National Mooks Online week or something? Limp Bizkit (#28) not only re-enters the Lycos 50 but reaches its highest position since their album Chocolate Starfish was released in October. Another rap-metal stalwart, Korn (#44), re-enters the Lycos 50 for the first time since July. After scouring the web, we can't find any reason for either of these bands to be suddenly more popular.
The group we expected to make the Lycos 50 this week, thinking man's metal band Tool, still falls short at #53. Their new album Lateralus arrives in stores today.
SHORT SUBJECTS: 'N Sync (#32) is back, probably for a while, after debuting their new song "Pop" on MTV last Friday? Loft Story continues to have a hold on reality TV fans in France and internationally, while Big Brother Australia (#42) continues to fade? People don't want to wait for more Survivor (#16). Ten percent of searches asked for Survivor 3 or Survivor Africa.
NEW THIS WEEK: Robert Blake, Limp Bizkit, 'N Sync, Korn, computer game Diablo II, Vietnam War
DROPOUTS: Cinco de Mayo, car crash victim and model Niki Taylor, Kentucky Derby, computer game Black and White, Christina Aguilera, Janet Jackson.
BIGGEST RISE: The Mummy Returns, up 15 places to #25.
BIGGEST DROP: Andrea Thompson, down 18 places to #20.
ONE YEAR AGO: The hot movie was Gladiator at #14.
