MSN unveils a wonderwall of celeb gossips

LOS ANGELES, USA: MSN and BermanBraun Interactive announced on Thursday the beta launch of their celebrity gossip site Wonderwall (www.wonderwall.com), offering people an engaging and visually dynamic perspective on the day’s hottest pop culture stories, personalities and trends.

The Wall utilizes horizontal scrolling that emulates the feeling of flipping through a favorite magazine. Filled with the latest celebrity information, photos, videos and features, the site presents its topics with an authentic and smart attitude, using a bold and inventive new design featuring a wall of photos and graphics, MSN said in a statement.

MSN expects Wonderwall will encourage users to spend more time on the site than they have elsewhere on the Web portal, and in turn this would help it gain more advantage on the advertisement front.

Alex Blagg, former founding editor of VH1’s “Best Week Ever” blog, has been tapped as lead editor of Wonderwall.

Blagg brings with him award-winning experience from VH1, where he won two consecutive Webby awards for Best Celebrity/Fan Site. Blagg has also been a featured panelist on FOX News and Sirius Satellite Radio, and his writing has appeared in many online and print publications, including The Huffington Post, Spin magazine and Gawker.com, the statement said.

“Wonderwall offers a clever, thought-provoking and amusing voice to fans of celebrity and is a great addition to MSN’s portfolio of entertainment content,” said Rob Bennett, general manager of Network Programming for MSN.

“Partnering with BermanBraun helps us deliver this unique experience and original and refreshing perspective. We believe Wonderwall will strike a chord with people that will have them laughing out loud and coming back for more.”

Eighty-four percent of people on the Internet in the U.S. visit an entertainment site every month, making the entertainment category one of the most popular categories, over social networking, games, travel, news/information, or even retail online sites, it added.