This week reality life proves just as captivating as reality television.
The shark attack off the coast of Pensacola, Florida lands at #15 on the Lycos 50. Eight year-old Jesse Arbogast was attacked at the Gulf Islands National Seashore as he played in the knee-deep water at dusk on July 6. Arbogast remains in critical condition after having his severed right arm reattached.
That sort of human drama makes the international TV sensation Big Brother (#2) seem silly. Nonetheless the show had a big week online, sparked by the controversy over the expulsion of cast member Justin Sebik. Sebik held a knife to the throat of fellow contestant Krista Stegall during a drunken make-out session broadcast on the show's 24-7 Internet feed.
The TV ratings didn't really spike because of the incident, and it will be interesting to see what happens to Big Brother if the controversy dies down this week. This was the last week of the Australian Big Brother, which should affect searches as well.
FANTASY FAILURE: While Final Fantasy finished at #6 on the Lycos 50, the interest in the video game didn't really translate to interest in the film, which finished a disappointing fourth at the box office. Only 14 percent of Final Fantasy searches specified the movie; by contrast, 32 percent of Tomb Raider (#24) searches specified the movie during its opening week.
The Final Fantasy movie brought in less than $20 million dollars in its first five days, which qualifies it as a major bust since the movie reportedly cost $115 million to make. Speaking of major busts, I guess you need one involved in order to make the video game-to-movie transition a success (See: #21 Angelina Jolie).
TENNIS ELBOW: Wimbledon (#19) still got a ton of searches thanks to Monday's delayed men's final. Men's champ Goran Ivanisevic actually received more searches last week than any female player other than Anna Kournikova (#28). Of course, a name like that is bound to be misspelled numerous ways, and the most popular included Ivanisevich, Ivanisavic, and Ivanesivic.
(Raise your hand if, in your mind, you are now saying "Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich.")
Meanwhile, biking replaced tennis as the fashionable sport du jour. The Tour de France (#4) was ridiculously popular this week, scoring its highest ranking ever. American cyclist Lance Armstrong also made his debut on the Lycos top ten athletes list.
FREE MONEY: Enough recently popular search terms have dropped off the Lycos 50 in the last couple weeks to allow searches for the tax rebate to make their debut at #42. Requests for the soon-to-be-sent checks have been strong since the passage of the tax cut (note: Lycos will not be sending you a check). Tax rebate interest also helps catapult the IRS (#7) back into the top ten even though tax time was three months ago.
LIZ ON THE LOOSE: Another name in the news was Lizzie Grubman, The celebrity publicist backed her Mercedes into a crowd outside a Long Island nightclub, injuring 19 and then fleeing the scene.
While Grubman doesn't receive enough searches to make the Lycos 50 this week, her story was more popular online than the now-fading Paula Poundstone incident. She got three times as many searches as her high-profile clients Jay-Z and Wu-Tang Clan combined.
ODD DEATH OF THE WEEK: The Dutch rock artist Herman Brood, who committed suicide last Wednesday, receives more searches this week than Oscar winner Jack Lemmon did the week of his death.
SHORT SUBJECTS: A.J. McLean's depression problem and the subsequent tour cancellation put Backstreet Boys (#29) back on the Lycos 50? Barbie (#49) makes a rare non-Christmas appearance? Morpheus (#10) makes its hotly anticipated entrance in the top ten and is now only two spots from unseating Napster as America's top file-sharing program? The WWF's new introduction of the ECW to its invasion storyline led ECW searches to go up a whopping 575 percent.
NEW THIS WEEK: The Florida shark attack, Backstreet Boys, NASA, Star Trek, tax rebate, Playstation 2, Digimon, Barbie.
DROPOUTS: Fireworks, Fourth of July, Paula Poundstone, U.S. Postal Service, tennis, Josh Hartnett, Vin Diesel, Alicia Keys.
BIGGEST RISE: Tour de France, up 27 places to #4.
BIGGEST DROP: Wimbledon, down 17 places to #19.
100 WEEKS OF DRAGONBALL: Today marks the 100th week of counting the Lycos 50. We began counting a couple of weeks before our online debut on August 30, 1999. We'll be celebrating our second anniversary with a special report in early September.
Eight items celebrate 100 weeks on our list today, including #1 Dragonball.
TOMORROW: Scary movie, trendy actress.
