Mac Corner: Thousands of Mac-using Celebs Can’t Be Wrong!
By Larry Grinnell, Palm Beach Phoenix Apple Users Group
A recent episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm showed something very interesting: After taking a couple of wheelbarrows full of Bill Gates’ money to do a series of commercials touting Microsoft products, and making public statements to that effect, there was Jerry Seinfeld with a Macbook Pro!
Apparently the contract between Seinfeld and Microsoft was only for a year, freeing him to be seen with whatever computer he wants, though I can only surmise that Messrs. Gates and Ballmer were less than thrilled with this re-switcher.
But Seinfeld is only one of many well-known celebrity Mac users.
The forum at the MacRumors.com website has over 33 pages of Mac-celeb sightings. The blog site, Obama Pacman, is another collection of celebrity Mac user sightings.
Among the so-called beautiful people, and very intelligent computer users, are Paris Hilton (maybe the very first time her name has been in close proximity with the word intelligent), Lindsey Lohan, Kylie Minogue, Taylor Swift, the Khardashian girls, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Anniston, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Madonna, and Tina Fey, and so on. On the guy side, Jimmy Fallon, Steven Colbert, Jon Stewart, Shaquille O’Neal, Trent Reznor, Kanye West, David Bowie, George Clooney, Jude Law, Jay Z, Matt Damon, Sacha Baron Cohen, John Mayer, and hundreds more count themselves as happy Mac users.
Part-time South Florida resident and well-known A-List actor/equestrian Tommy Lee Jones runs most of his far-flung business empire with a slew of Macs.
Former US Presidential candidate Al Gore, a member of Apple’s board of directors, was shown in a rather famous photo in Time Magazine at his cluttered desk, working on his Mac, feeding not one, not two, but three huge 30 inch Apple displays.
Speaking of politicians, our own president, Barack Obama, is a Mac user, though the fun-hating White House IT staff may have changed that by now.
Comedians Robin Williams and Sinbad, as well as film star F. Murray Abraham are Mac users, as are musicians Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades of Shaw-Blades. I saw all of them at Macworld Expo conferences in 2007 and 2008.
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, is a devoted Mac user, as is director Robert Rodriguez, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Among the more infamous include former Palm Beachers Bernie and Ruth Madoff, Ditto full-time Palm Beacher Rush Limbaugh, who is a huge (sorry…) Mac fan.
The sheer numbers of users from all walks of life seem to prove that a Mac isn’t just a fashion accessory.
If you think these are freebies from Apple, you’d probably be wrong. Apple’s public policy is not to provide their products for product placement. You can tell when production companies don’t put anything on the set without product placement fees by the ubiquitous MacBooks and MacBook Pros with the illuminated Apple logo taped over.
If untaped, either there is no such policy, or they are using the computers belonging to production staff. Usually, though, the big Apple logo is taped over. Other brand names are similarly obscured using tape, selective blurring, and just keeping the brand name away from the camera with carefully selected shots.
A number of musicians appearing on television programming similarly have the brand names of their equipment obscured, occasionally damaging the instruments in the process. I guess that unless they’re megastars, they just keep their mouths shut and be happy for the exposure. But (again), I digress.
I guess this all goes to show that celebrities are not as dumb as some would like you to think they are. By being Mac users, they have achieved that first step toward computer nirvana. How about you?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Readers are welcome to comment on this or any Mac Corner columns by visiting the Palm Beach Phoenix blog as well as by writing the editor of Palm Beach Business.com.
Mac Corner runs every Wednesday only in Palm Beach Business.com. Click to read the previous column.
About Larry Grinnell: Larry has been working with Macintosh and Windows PCs for over 25 years and worked as a senior technical writer and IT support professional for a major midwest-based consumer electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturer here in South Florida. His musings on a wide variety of topics from computers to jazz guitar to strange foreign cars from the 1950s can be viewed at the MyMac.com website. Click here to reach him by email.
Writers of this column are members of the Palm Beach Phoenix Apple User Group, a nonprofit organization for Apple Computing Device Users, recognized by Apple Inc., with the purpose of providing educational training and coaching to its members (students, professionals and seniors alike) in a cordial social environment. The club meets the second Saturday of each month from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Fire Station #2, 4301 Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach (just two block south of Southern Boulevard). Click here to visit their website. Click here to reach them by email.
