Trend: User-Created: LonelyGirl15 Exposed (sort of) Finale

NY Times reveals the woman who plays Lonelygirl15 on the video-sharing site YouTube.com has been identified as Jessica Rose, a 20-ish resident of New Zealand and Los Angeles and a graduate of the New York Film Academy. And the whole project appears to be the early serialized version of what eventually will become a movie.

Yawn. Unfortunately, I now begin to suspect that there is no "there" there. There is only this, and this is all there is.

More revelations and behind-the-scenes to be found here, and here including model shots of the actress, and other celeb style who-gives-a-damn (...as if this is a "real" series - and I suppose, in a way, it is, huh? Which is the bigger story behind this project. But we'll get back to that later.).

Needless to say, the trick may be done. And a rather lame magician they proved to be - nice entrance, lame finish. No big flourish to come. Go home.

To be clear, I am not let down by the "real"/fiction quandry...I am let down with it's pointlessness. The riddle wrapped inside of an enigma has no meaning, no "point". It proved to be neither innovative brand connection strategy, nor savvy movie lead-in, nor simply a real girl's confessional reality - only a lame, not-too-entertaining student-movie soap-opera. By most measures, it was indeed a successful prank...just not a very funny or inspiring one. Sorta like getting that impossible tag up on a landmark building, only to mispell the words.

Hopefully the next guys up to bat will harness all the willing attention and public passion and squeeze some greater purpose out of it.

By the way...who noticed that NY Times has a "Screens" blogger on staff whose charged with "finding, reviewing and making sense of all those senseless new images: web video, viral video, user-driven video, custom interactive video, embedded video ads, web-based VOD, broadband television, diavlogs, vcasts, vlogs, video podcasts, mobisodes, webisodes, mashups and more." Yay, NYT!