The Cameras Are Always Rolling

— -- 2006 might not have been the most artistically productive year for Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. But thanks in large part to their after-hours antics, this was a huge year for celebrity-based Web sites, where their adventures and misadventures were put on view for all to see -- whether they were going out, going wild, or just going panty-less.

"From the day we turned our lights on, Britney Spears was like crack to an addict," says Harvey Levin of TMZ.com. "Bar none, the biggest celebrity we have on our Web site from day one."

Web sites like TMZ are the bleeding edge of a technological revolution, offering constant video coverage of the notorious, captured on digicams or camera phones, and posted on the Web. "What we've learned this year," says Levin, "[is that] there's plenty of material."

Just ask "Seinfeld's" Michael Richards, who dropped the "n"-word while onstage at a comedy club. Hours later, it was on the Internet. "The Michael Richards video was something that a friend of somebody on my staff had a friend who was at the club," Levin says. "He pulled out the camera and he started shooting. At midnight, we were launched."

Backed by Time Warner, TMZ has staff shooting and posting its own video of the famous in action. But what does it say about our values that the well-known are now subject to such non-stop video scrutiny?

"For all practical purposes, privacy has ceased to exist -- at least if you're a public figure." So says Allan Mayer, whose PR firm, 42 West works with celebrities to prevent PR meltdowns.

"Every time you step out of your house, no matter whether you're going to a restaurant, a private dinner party, a club, the men's room at the Exxon station on the freeway, you run the risk of being exposed to the world. And the ability of people not only to take those pictures, but to get them circulated, is astonishing."