14 celeb-powered start-ups: Where are they now?
Celebrity: Peter Gabriel
 Site: WuChess.com The RZA may be best known for being part of rap group Wu-Tang Clan. WuChess is an extension of that brand and mixes social networking with online chess. Users can play against the computer or other people for prizes and stat points that are tracked on their profiles and determine their ranking for matchmaking and tournaments. Status: Still alive, but again we have another case of a celebrity-backed venture that uses existing technology. In this case, it's two-year-old Chesspark. Celebrity: Will Ferrell Site: FunnyorDie.com Ferrell is co-founder of FunnyOrDie.com, a comedy site that lets amateur comedians post their homemade creations alongside content from the pros. The site received a boom in traffic from several of its videos hitting the Web, including The Landlord which has netted close to 60 million views. Status: Doing real well. In June, HBO took an equity stake in the site, which plans to produce five hours of content that will appear on the paid TV network. We also heard that as of late July, more than 140 of its videos had hit the front page of social news site Digg.com since launch.  Site: PluggedIn.com Back in mid-April Smith was one of the investors in a US$2 million round of funding for music video site PluggedIn. The site serves up its videos in spiffy looking high resolution with the use of a special plug-in (which incidentally has nothing to do with the site's name). Status: Alive and still very much around. Like Peter Gabriel's investment in The Filter, this isn't Smith's idea as much as he's just helping to fund it. Honorable mentions for tech/Web spokespeople: William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (for Priceline.com), and Barry Bonds (for Bling Software). Tags: Site, Celebrity, TV, Social Networking, video
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